Sweetman, Will

About the author: Will Sweetman studies at the Universities of Lancaster and Cambridge. His doctoral research was on European writers on Hinduism in the 17th and 18th centuries. He is Lecturer in Religious Studies at Middlesex University.

Discovery of the Banian Religion and the Religion of the Persees. A Critical Edition of Two Early English Works on Indian Religions Henry Lord’s a Display of Two Foreign Sects in the East Indies

1999 0-7734-7928-7
Published in 1630, Henry Lord's book was the first in English to be entirely devoted to discussion of Indian religions, and represents the first serious attempt to go beyond reports by travellers of the strange religious beliefs and practices that they had observed in India. Lord was a chaplain, rather than a missionary, and made a serious attempt to understand the religions rather than condemn them. The display was used as a source by later European writers on Indian religions, most notably François Bernier. By identifying the relevant persons (mythological as well as historical), groups, texts and places, this critical edition does much to make Lord's work more accessible.