The Puththenpaana, a religious chant, is his most celebrated poem.
He was the first to construct a Malayalam dictionary. His lexicon describes Malayalam words in both Sanskrit and Portuguese (the then predominant European language in India).
Hanxleden and his predecessor, Heinrich Roth, were the pioneering European Sanskrit scholars. He was the first European to write a Sanskrit grammar (ca. 1725). He was also the first European to compose Sanskrit verse.
He died in Velur, the village where he had worked for over three decades, of a snake-bite.
References
Joseph J. Palackal: Puthen paana: A Musical Study, Master's Thesis, Hunter College of the City University of New York, 1995. Christian Musicological Society of India (http://www.indussociety.org/cmsindia)
at Palayur, in Trichur, Kerala, 20 March, 1732), known as ArnosPaathiri [Padre Ernst] in Kerala, was a Malayalam/Sanskrit poet, grammarian, lexicographer, and philologist.
His home, and the church he built (St. Francis Xavier forane church), are preserved as historical monuments in Velur (John Kalliath, a teacher, was instrumental in organising the people of Velur towards the objective of preserving them).
Among various exhibits at the museum are the bed used by Hanxleden, and the chathurangam (the Indian ancestor of chess, which Hanxleden used to play) columns marked on the floor of his home.
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