Pierre Sonnerat: An 18th Century French Naturalist on the Coromandel Coast

In the late eighteenth century, amid intense Anglo-French rivalry in India, Pierre Sonnerat – French naturalist, traveller, and administrator – undertook two journeys to the subcontinent. Godson of the renowned horticulturist and administrator Pierre Poivre, Sonnerat served in Pondicherry shortly before the British siege of 1778. Captivated by the landscapes and ancient cultures of South India, he published Voyage aux Indes orientales et à la Chine (1782), a richly illustrated two-volume work. The first volume offers vivid observations of Indian society, castes, religion, and rituals, enriched by 140 original plates depicting flora, fauna, people, and deities. These visual and textual records emerged in an age of Enlightenment curiosity, when travel writing functioned as both science and art, securing Sonnerat’s place in the history of exploration. This extensively annotated translation of Volume I, accompanied by a substantial introduction, makes this important Enlightenment text accessible to contemporary readers. It will appeal to translators of eighteenth-century French travel writing and offer researchers fresh perspectives beyond long-dominant English sources on Indo-French encounters, deepening understanding of the intellectual and cultural forces that shaped the European imagination of India.

• Publication date: 15 November 2025
• Page count: 523
• Dimensions: Height 230 mm; Width 150 mm
• Publisher: Manohar Publishers and Distributors
• Format: Hardback
• ISBN-13: 9789374510131