Treaties

The main treaty between Raghunatha Nayak and Ove Gedde was signed on November 19,1620. One copy of the treaty in Portuguese, which was the main language for trade,  written on parchment, exists at the National Archives in Copenhagen. This treaty bears the original signature of Raghunatha  (which can be compared with the gold foil). After Ove Gedde came home, the treaty was ratified by Christian IV; however the ratification was never sent back to Tanjore. There are reports that there was also a treaty in "Mallabarisk" (Tamil). I do not believe that this is true; I think that this is a misunderstanding caused by Schlegel, who mistook the letter on the golden foil to be a treaty. (See document ph_31 under 'Peder Hansen').

In addition to this treaty, two more golden leaves exist. But these contain letters written by a Rama Naiken, who thanks the Danish Government for giving them an opportunity to stay in the property, that was owed by his family for more than 300 years. Finally there should also have been four "treaties" written on silver foils. These were written everytime villages were pawned to the Danes for the loan they paid the Tanjore kings.These were written during 1644, 1660, 1670 and 1676. The originals could not be traced, but Danish translations exist at the National Archives.