Filip Vezdin (Wesdin) (1748-1806), a Croat born in Lower Austria, was a Carmelitan missionary in India. He is the author of "Sidharaban", the first printed Sanskrit grammar in Europe, published in 1790 in Rome. He wrote numerous works on Indian culture, and in addition to Sanskrit also learned Malayalam, the Malabar coastal language, in which he wrote his works as well. At the request of a local ruler, he wrote an English-Portugese-Malayalam grammar. His works are kept in Rome, Vienna and Uppsala. In 1999 Vezdin's image was carved into the white marble memorial plaque in the City Museum of Trivandrum, the capital of the Indian state of Kerala. He is considered as one of pioneers of European indology. The following text was written in the Sanskrit, malayalam, Croatian and English languages:

Ivan Filip Vezdin, Burgenland Croat, Discalceate Carmelite, with the monastic name Paulin of St. Bartholomew, a missionary in Malabar from 1776 to 1789. The author of the first printed Sanskrit grammar and forerunner of Indian and Indo-European studies to the great honour of his homeland and the Croatian and Indian people.