TIEFFENTALLER, Joseph. - Jesuit missionary and geographer, b. at Salorno (Bolzano) on 24 Apr. 1710, d. at Laknau (India) on 5 July 1785.
He entered the Society in 1729 and departed for India in 1740; in 1743 he was in the Kingdom of the Great Mogul; and from 1747 to 1764 at Narvar. After the suppression of the Society of Jesus, he did not abandon India but continued as a wandering missionary. During his travels he collected much information and observations on astronomy, history, natural sciences, customs, usages, religions, which formed the subject of many communications to European scholars. To him is owed especially the scientific exploration of the Middle Ganges and its tributaries, especially the Gogra; for which T. is called the “Father of modern Indian geography.” Anquetil du Perron, with three large and thirty-two small maps obtained from T. in 1776 with the necessary explanations, published: Carte générale du cours du Gange et du Gogra dressée par les cartes particulières du p. T. (Paris 1784). The German astronomer J. Bernoulli, in turn, having obtained from the physician Dr. Kratzenstein many letters and thirty other valuable manuscripts of the missionary, published, together with all the maps: Des p. J. Tieffenthalers der Gesellschaft Jesu und apostolische Missionarius in Indien historisch-geographische Beschreibung von Hindustan (3 vols., Berlin and Gotha 1785–88; French ed., ibid. 1786–89).