EROUAD, or ERROAD, a town of Hindustan, in the province of Coimbetoor. It contained during the reign of Hyder about 3000 houses, but was reduced to one-third in the reign of Tippoo; and during the invasion of General Meadows the town was destroyed. It is now fast recovering, and contains a considerable population. It was taken by the British in 1768, and retaken the same year by Hyder. It was again taken by the British in 1790, and retaken by Tippoo; but it came into the final possession of the British, along with the province, in 1799. A canal of irrigation cut in its vicinity has been productive of much benefit to the inhabitants. E. Long. 77, 46, N. Lat. 11, 19. (E.T.)
ERPENIUS or D'ERPE, THOMAS, a celebrated orientalist, born at Gorcum in Holland, on the 7th September 1584. Observing his aptitude for learning, his father sent him to Leyden at the early age of ten; and it was in that city that he commenced his studies. At the end of several months, however, he went to Middelburg, but he soon after returned to Leyden. He was early admitted into the university of that city, and in 1608 took the degree of master of arts. By the advice of Scaliger he learned the oriental languages whilst taking his course of theology, and even then gave promise of great distinction in that department of learning. He afterwards travelled in England, France, Italy, and Germany, forming connections with learned men, and availing himself of the information which they communicated. During his stay at Paris, he contracted a friendship with Casaubon, which lasted during his life; and also took lessons in Arabic from Joseph Barbatus, otherwise called Abu-dakni. At Venice he perfected himself in the Turkish, Persian, and Ethiopic languages. After a long absence, Erpenius returned to his own country in 1612, rich in the learning which he had acquired during his travels, as well as beloved by all the learned whom he had visited. His acquirements being already known and appreciated, he was, on the 10th February 1613, appointed professor of Arabic and other oriental languages, Hebrew excepted, in the university of Leyden. From this period he devoted himself solely to the teaching of these languages; and animated by the example of Savary de Brèves, who had established an Arabic press at Paris at his own charge, he caused new Arabic characters to be cut at a great expense, and erected a press in his own house. In 1619 the curators of the university of Leyden instituted a second chair of Hebrew in his favour. In 1620 he was sent by the States of Holland to induce Pierre Dumoulin or André Rivet to settle in that country; and after a second journey he was successful in inducing Rivet to comply with their request. Some time after the return of Erpenius, the States appointed him their interpreter; and in this capacity
he had the duty imposed upon him of translating and replying to the different letters of the Moslem princes of Asia and Africa. The reputation of Erpenius had now spread throughout all Europe; and several princes, the kings of England and Spain, and the archbishop of Seville, made him the most flattering offers; but he constantly refused to leave his native country, and died of a contagious distemper Nov. 13, 1624, at the early age of forty. Erpenius left several works, which are doubtless disfigured by imperfections; but if we consider that he lived in an age when pursuits like his were exceedingly rare, if not wholly new, and that he had little or no assistance of any kind; and if we judge him, not according to the present state of oriental literature, but by what he actually achieved under every disadvantage, we must conclude that, in the immensity and difficulty of his labours, he probably surpassed all the orientalis who have followed him; and that if his career had not been cut short by a premature death, he would have greatly enlarged the boundaries of that literature of which his name will always remain one of the greatest ornaments.
The following is a list of his works:—Oratio de Lingua Arabica, Leyden, 1613, in 4to; Annotaciones in Lexic. Arab. Fr. Raphelengii, ibid. 1613, in 4to; Grammatica Arabica, quinque libris methodice explicata, ibid. 1613, in 4to; Proverbiorum Arabicorum centuria duae, ab anonymo quodam Arabe collectae, ibid. 1614 and 1623, in 8vo; Locumani sapientis Pabulz et selecta quaedam Arabum Adagia, cum interpretatione Latina et notis, ibid. 1615, in 8vo; Pauli Apost. ad Romanos, Arabice, ibid. 1615, in 4to; Novum D. N. J. C. Testamentum, Arabice, ibid. 1616, in 4to; Pentateuchus Mosii, Arabice, ibid. 1622; Historia Joseph Patriarchae ex Alcorano, cum triplici versione Latina et scholiis Th. Erpenii, cuius praemittitur Alphabetum Arabicum, ibid. 1617, in 4to; Grammatica Arabica dicta Giarmusia et libellus centum regatum cum versione Latina et Commentariis, ibid. 1617, in 4to; Canones de litterarum Alij, Wau, et Ye apud Arabes naturo et permutatione, ibid. 1618, in 4to; Rudimenta Linguae Arabicae; accedunt Praxis Grammatica et consilium de studio Arabice feliciter instituendo, ibid. 1620, in 8vo; Orationes tres de linguarum Ebraea et Arabica dignitate, ibid. 1621, in 12mo; Historia Saracensia, ibid. 1625, in fol.; Grammatica Ebraea Generalis, ibid. 1621, in 8vo; Grammatica Syra et Chaldaea, ibid. 1628; Praemia Davidis, Syrae, ibid. 1628; Arcanus punctuationis revelatum et Oratio de nomine Tetragrammaton; Vernio et Notae ad Arabiceam Paraphrasin in Excep. S. Joannis, Rostock, 1626; De Perigrinatione Galilee militis instituenda tractatus, ibid. 1631, in 12mo; Præcepta de Lingua Graecorum communis, Leyden, 1662. Erpenius had projected several other works, particularly an addition of the Koran with notes, and an oriental library; and in the prefaces of his grammars he also speaks of a Theaurus Grammaticus, which, however, has not seen the light. For further information respecting this celebrated orientalist, the learned reader may consult Vossius, Oratio in obit. Th. Erpenii, Leyden, 1625, in 4to, and Serwerius, Mans Erpeniani, quibus accedunt Epicedia variorum, ibid. 1626.