The Complete Works of Haafner 2
By Jaap de Moor
On Friday 24 November 1995 the second volume of the complete works of Jacob Haafner
was presented at the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam. The republication of his
works means the rediscovery of this author whose travel accounts of India and Ceylon are
unsurpassed in Dutch literature. The second volume contains his Travels on Foot
through the Island of Ceylon and his Journey to Bengal at the beginning
of the eighties of the 18th century. While his Travels on Foot contains many
romantic characteristics, his Journey to Bengal shows him as a proto-
Orientalist in his vivid descriptions of Indian culture and Hinduism. He also severely
criticizes the English colonial regime.
Three lectures were delivered on this occasion. Dr Lodewijk Wagenaar, curator of the
Amsterdam Historical Museum and well-known specialist on 17th and 18th century Sri
Lanka, painted the difficulties encountered while travelling on foot through Sri Lanka in
the eighteenth century in vivid colours.
Hanneke 't Hart, Sanskritist and head of the Kern Institute library, gave a lecture entitled
'Haafner and the Pundits'. She was also largely responsible for the extensive glossary
containing Tamil, Hindi, and Sanskrit words which is appended to this second volume of
the complete works of Haafner. In her lecture she made clear that the works of Haafner
are a very useful source for the colloquial use of language at the end of the eighteenth
century in India and Ceylon.
Paul van der Velde, one of the editors of the Works of Haafner, talked about
Haafner research in the past seven years. He also announced that volume 3 will be
published in 1997 and to celebrate the completion of the project an international seminar
will be organized to chart new research being done on Haafner.
De werken van Jacob Haafner 2, Zutphen:
De Walburg Pers, 1995
ISBN 90-6011-943-6
Nlg 79.50
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