Abraham Rogers Offne Thür zu dem verborgenen Heydenthum : oder,warhaftige Vorweisung dess Lebens, und der Sitten, samt der Religion, und dem Gottesdienst der Bramines, auf der Cust Chormandel, und denen herumligenden Ländern

Published in Nuremberg in 1663, this work by the Dutch Reformed clergyman Abraham Rogerius is considered one of the earliest and most influential European accounts of Hindu customs and theology. Rogerius spent over a decade in Pulicat on the Coromandel Coast of India during the early 17th century, where he actively studied the local culture and religious practices. Unlike many of his contemporaries who viewed the region through a strictly colonial or missionary lens, Rogerius collaborated with local scholars and translated significant portions of the Bhartṛhari’s Nītiśataka and Vairāgyaśataka, providing a surprisingly nuanced look at the lives and beliefs of the Brahmins of the Coromandel region.

The German edition, released under the title Offne Thür zu dem verborgenen Heydenthum, featured engravings that sought to visualize these unfamiliar concepts for a European audience, often blending observed reality with European artistic conventions. The book served as a primary source for philosophers and theologians of the Enlightenment, including Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who referenced Rogerius’s work while developing his own understanding of Eastern thought. By bringing texts from the Indian subcontinent into the Western intellectual sphere, the work played a foundational role in the development of European Indology and comparative religious studies.