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Heinrich Roth (December 18, 1620 – June 20, 1668), also known as Henricus Rodius or Henrique Roa,Cf. Vogel, Heinrich Roth, NDB 22, 2005, p. 106. was a German missionary and pioneering Sanskrit scholar.
On behalf of Francesco Piccolomini, in 1649 Roth was assigned to the so-called Ethiopian mission to India. Instructio A.R.P. Generalis Francisci Piccolomini pro P(atre) Henrico R(oth) Ingolstadio ad missionem Aethiopicam profecturo (1639); cf. Anton Huonder, Deutsche Jesuitenmissionare des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts, Freiburg, 1899, pp. 213 sq. (German) Traveling by the land route via Smyrna (1650) and Isfahan, he arrived in Goa by 1652. He worked first on the Island of Salsette off Goa, where from time to time he acted as Portuguese interpreter. He was then sent on an embassy by one of the native princes, and via Uttarakhand finally reached the Mughal Empire and its residence in Agra in 1654. Acting as rector of the Jesuit residence in Agra since 1659, he was involved in the persecution under Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb.
Next to learning the Persian language, Kannada and Hindustani languages, Roth at Agra for several years also acquired a profound knowledge of classical Sanskrit grammar and literature from local . The French explorer and philosopher Francois Bernier, who got acquainted with Roth in these years, got to appreciate him as one versed in expert knowledge of the culture and philosophy of religions in IndiaBernier mentions Roth several times in his Voyage dans les États du Grand Mogol, Paris, 1671 (cf. the English translation in Travels in Hindustan, new ed., Calcutta, 1904, pp. 109 sqq.)
In 1662, joined by fellow Jesuit Johann Grueber, who was on his way back from China, Roth revisited Europe by the land route via Kabul, and arrived in Rome in February 1664. Athanasius Kircher, in his monumental work China illustrata, published their itinerary, Roth's description of the Sanskrit alphabet, and some short excerpts of Roth's other works.Athanasius Kircher: China monumentis qua sacris qua profanis nec non variis naturae et artis spectaculis aliarumque rerum memorabilium argumentis illustrata. Amsterdam 1667; pp. 91 sqq. ( Iter ex Agra Mogorum in Europam ex relatione PP. Joh(anni) Gruberi et H(enrici) Roth) and pp. 156-162 ( Itinerarium St. Thomae Apost. ex Judaea in Indiam and Dogmata varia fabulossissima Brachmanorum); cf. also Max Müller, Lectures on the Science of Language, London, 1866, p. 277. Traveling north to Germany, Roth held some public lectures in Neuburg on the history and culture of the Mughal Empire, excerpts of which subsequently appeared in print. Relatio rerum notabilium Regni Mogor in Asia, Straubing, 1665, and Aschaffenburg, 1668 (which contains the first information concerning Kabul to reach Europe) In Vienna, Roth succeeded in gaining financial support from emperor Leopold I to have his Sanskrit grammar – the first such work ever compiled by a European, which Roth had completed in Agra by 1660Cf. Arnulf Camps, Studies in Asian mission history 1956-1998, Leiden/Boston/Köln, 2000, pp. 75-104 (partly German). – appear in print, but the project was stopped by the Jesuit Superior General Giovanni Paolo Oliva.
Ordered by Oliva to set up a Jesuit mission in Nepal, Roth traveled back via Constantinople and Surat,Cf. Claus Vogel, An old letter from Surat written by German Jesuit Heinrich Roth. In: Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute 58, 1987, pp. 609-619. returning to Agra by 1666, where he died in 1668 before he could embark on the Nepalese mission. His gravesite is still visible at the Padri Santos chapel in Lashkarpur, a suburb of Agra.Photos of the memorial are added as an appendix to: Claus Vogel, The Jesuit missionary Heinrich Roth (1620-1668) and his burial place at Agra. In: Lars Göhler (Ed.): Indische Kultur im Kontext. Rituale, Texte und Ideen aus Indien und der Welt. Festschrift für Klaus Mylius.Wiesbaden, 2005, pp. 407-412.
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