Read the following passage and answer the questions given after it.

A book by the Indian ambassador in the Netherlands highlights the historical and current exchanges that define the relationship between the two countries. The first book in which Malayalam appears in print is the ‘Hortus Malabaricus’ (Garden of Malabar), a 12-volume treatise, written in Latin and published in Amsterdam from 1678 to1693. Compiled over a period of 30 years, under directions from Hendrik van Rheede, a naturalist and colonial administrator, who was at the time the governor of Dutch Malabar, the Hortus Malabaricus gives a comprehensive account of the flora of the Malabar region, along with their properties and detailed sketches. Malayalam appears in this multilingual book, along with other languages that were common currency at the time, including Arabic and Konkani.

The Hortus Malabaricus was an important document of its time, as Venu Rajamony writes in his new book ‘India and the Netherlands: Past, Present and Future’, “the product of a multinational and multicultural team of botanical experts.” Yet, it remained lost to the public until a botany scholar from Calicut, KS Manilal, learned Latin and translated it first into English in 2003 and into Malayalam in 2008. Highlighting such instances of the Indo-Dutch artistic and cultural exchange through the last 400 years was the prime reason why Rajamony, who has been the Ambassador of India to the Netherlands, thought of writing this book. The book was released on 30 September 2019.

The connection between India and the Netherlands begins with the Dutch Golden Age, when the latter was a flourishing centre for commercial and artistic endeavours. Following Spain, Portugal and Great Britain, it also emerged as one of the great maritime nations of the world, establishing a far-flung empire thanks to the ventures of the Dutch East India Company. Over the course of his research for the book, Rajamony says, one of the things that surprised him was how taken the great Dutch master Rembrandt was with Indian miniature paintings, collecting them and even making drawings inspired by them. “I was pleasantly surprised to discover this as Rembrandt is considered an absolute master, who would only have made originals. It is very rare that a master like him would copy other artworks,” says Rajamony. According to him, this fact is indicative of the high esteem in which Indian art was held in Europe.

What inspired Rajamony to write his new book ‘India and the Netherlands: Past, Present and Future’?

Instances of the Indo-Dutch artistic and cultural exchange through the last 400 years.