Joseph Tiefenthaler, a Jesuit missionary, who was one of the earliest European geographers and cartographers documenting India, was born on this
day.
He was born in Bozen, in the county of Tyrol, which was part of the Austrian empire then. He arrived in India in the 1740s. He was appointed rector of the Jesuit High School of Agra.
Later, he lived in Narwar, now in Madhya Pradesh.
After an order that required the expulsion of Jesuits from Portuguese-controlled areas, he followed the course of the Ganges to Kolkata.
He put together an elaborate book of maps on the basin of the Ganges. His book Descriptio Indiæ documented the provinces, cities, towns and fortresses, with their geographical locations. Other than the major European languages, he knew Hindustani, Persian and Sanskrit. He wrote on Indian religions, spiritual traditions and intellectual histories. He wrote botanical accounts of India as well and about Indian history. He prepared a Sanskrit-Persian dictionary.
