What question did this study set out to answer?

This research aims to reconstruct the histories of Tamil religious artefacts during the colonial era.

April 30, 2026Open Access

From Missionary Records to Data Narratives: Reconstructing the Histories of Tamil Religious Objects (1706-1741)

Key Points

This research aims to reconstruct the histories of Tamil religious artefacts during the colonial era.
Digital humanities analysis of missionary archives from the Danish-Halle Mission (1706-1741)
Object biography methodology applied to Tamil religious artefacts
Creation of a dataset from missionary journals, letters, and cabinet inventories
Reconstructed micro-level narratives of specific Tamil artefacts
Identified macro-level patterns in colonial-era collecting activities

Abstract

A digital humanities study reconstructing the colonial-era movement of Tamil religious artefacts from South India to European collections, combining object biography methodology with computational analysis of missionary archives from the Danish-Halle Mission (1706–1741). Building a dataset from scratch from missionary journals, letters, and the 1741 Halle Cabinet inventory, the project traces both the micro-level narratives of specific objects and the macro-level patterns of colonial collecting.

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