Saturday, May 25, 2013
THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF MALAYALAM LANGUAGE :കടപ്പാട് :Dr. Sam Ebenezer(Request From Ashitha)
THE
INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF MALAYALAM LANGUAGE
Dr.
Sam Ebenezer
The name of Dr. Herman Gundert can be read with history of Malayalam language. Though he came from Germany for propagating Christianity, it is very exiting to mention here that he is first person to compile a dictionary in this language. Besides, the newspaper of Malayalam ¥¯»£¯ü¯¥¹ was started under his initiative indicates the revolutionary act by Dr. Gundert in Malayalam language.
There are a few other Missionaries came to Kerala, whose unique contributions also great as Gundert’s. Undoubtedly the main objective of the missionaries is to preach the love of Jesus Christ and to propagate Christianity. For this purpose they were required to learn the language of the people of Kerala. Fortunately, the missionaries who came to Kerala were well educated and gifted with special aptitude in language. So naturally they became the pioneers to study and analyse the Malayalam language. This is an attempt to trace out contributions of the Missionaries who carry with heart this God’s own countries language unlike their own culture and language.
The Christian (Catholic) missionaries (Jesuit & Carmelite) came to Kerala even before the arrival of Portuguese captain Vasco Dagama in 1498. The protestant missionaries came to Kerala mainly through three major organizations viz. London Missionary Society in Travancore, Church Missionary Society in Cochin and Bassel Mission in Malabar. William Tobias Ringeltaube in 1806 (LMS) and Thomas Norton in 1814 (CMS) started their work in South and North Travancore. At that time there was no uniformly standard language in these areas. Perhaps this is one of the reasons, which prompted them to study and analyse the language.
Their important contribution to this field was spreading of English education system. In those days educational institutions were known as ¯”«¯§, administered by hereditary teachers where children of higher community were only admitted. Through the advent of Christianity, a welcome change took place to this situation.
In 1818 Rev. Charles Mead, an Anglican London Missionary started the first English school in the erstwhile Travancore (Nagarcoil). This school was later known as Nagarcoil Seminary. Later it was affiliated to Madras University as a college. Quite convinced by the importance of English Education, the then Maharaja of Travancore Sri. Swathi Thirunal visited there and sought the services of experienced teachers to start a similar school in Trivandrum. Eventually Mr. John Roberts, the Anglican headmaster of the seminary, came and started the first English school, “Free School” in Trivandrum in 1834. It became famous as “Robert’s Free School”. Later it became the University College. The Fort School, Trivandrum was also started in 1864 by the missionary Ms. Augusta Blandford under the banner of Church of England Zenana Missionary Society (CEZMS). In North Travancore the first school was started at Kottayam in 1820. The master brain behind it was Mrs. Baker (Sr). This school was exclusively for girls. Later this was named after Baker Memorial School to commemorate the memories of Mrs. Baker (Sr) and her daughter-in-law Mrs. Baker (Jr). In Malabar the first English school was started in 1848 at Kallayi. Later it was shifted to Calicut. At that time the teachers and principals of these institutions were missionaries.
The first academic institution to offer a course in Malayalam was Jesuit Seminary at Vaipicotta, established by the Portuguese in 1581. Bishop Francis Roz and others prepared materials for this purpose. But there was no uniformly codified language for Travancore, Cochin and Malabar even though Malayalam evolved as a distinct language in 9th century AD. Besides §±§¯˜°§‰¹, written by an unknown author in the 14th century no significant studies describing the language took place till 18th century. At that time Malayalam was looked upon by the local scholars as an inferior language and they revelled more in their Sanskrit scholarship rather than in Malayalam. In these circumstances the efforts of Christian missionaries helped to promote the beauty and identity of this language. The names of Fr. Ernestin, Fr. Paulino, Fr. John Baptista and Fr. Angelos Francis (all Catholic bishops) rightfully find their due place in the early history of Malayalam. The last among them was a Bishop at Varapuzha, who has the credit of writing the first dissertation on Malayalam (1700). But it was written in Latin.
The 19th century is considered as the golden era for Malayalam studies. Many Christian missionaries came to this field and they gave scientific framework to the Malayalam language. Among these was publishing the book “Outline of a Grammar of Malayalam language” by F.S. Spring in 1839. This was followed by J.S. Peet’s (a Church missionary) “A Short Grammar of Malayalam language”. During this period a Government publication on Malayalam Grammar is also done with the help of J.S. Peet. Later in 1851, a pioneer work of Malayalam linguistic studies £§¤¯¨ ¢¯¬¯ª»¯‰¥—¹ by Rev (Dr) Herman Gundert, a Bassel missionary from Germany, came to light. Afterwards, he compiled a dictionary also. Meanwhile he contributed much towards translating the Bible in Malayalam language. Then the missionaries took the initiative to have comparative studies of Malayalam with other South Indian languages. Rev. Robert Caldwell, a Church missionary who later became the bishop of CMS, made a comparative study on Dravidian languages including Malayalam. He published a book entitled “A Comparative Grammar of Dravidian and South Indian Family of languages” in 1856. The book “A progressive Grammar of the Malayalam language for Europeans” (1884) by Rev. L.J. Frohenmayer (Bassel missionary) helped other foreign missionaries to study the language. Besides these scholarly missionaries, Richard Collins, a CMS missionary and former Principal of CMS College took prompt step to affiliate this college to the Madras University. He also earned great fame by writing literary works and a book on synonyms in Malayalam. The serious studies on Malayalam among native scholars were also marked by the book £§¤¯ï¤²µ“ ª»¯‰¥—¹ published in 1863 by Rev. George Mathen, a CMS priest. Then a Syrian Catholic priest, Fr. Gerard, wrote the first comprehensive book on Malayalam Rhetoric. He published his book §Ã¯¥«¯¸½˜¹ (Rhetoric) in 1881. The books on rhetoric published earlier were devoted to poetry only. The evergreen work of Malayalam Grammar ¶‰¥¨¯—°œ±¤¹ by A.R. Rajaraja Varma came out much later (1895).
The contributions of Christian missionaries to the growth of Malayalam as a language were not only confined to scriptures and language studies but they also extended to other branches for the promotion of language including press, translation, literature, journalism, publication of books etc. The first Malayalam reader ¯”£¯§ was compiled by the Bassel missionary Dr. H. Gundert, consisting parts of Malayalam classics like ¥¯£ü¥°˜¹, ¥¯£¯¤—¹, ¢¯¥˜¹, Æü¥°˜¹, œ¨ü¥°˜¹, ¶ª˜¯¨ü¥°˜¹, ü¯—‰»³½˜¹ and ò¯œÔ¯œ. The missionaries were also very keen on promoting scientific matters in Malayalam language. ª°š»¯£³§‰Äà, a general knowledge digest (1858), £´‹ü¥°˜¹ dealing with animal life by J.G. Beuttler (1861) and ½‰´˜°«¯¸½˜¹, a textbook on Physics by L.J. Frohenmayer were published in this category. ©µÆ¯Þ£¯®¯¥¹ by Dr. Gundert was a noteworthy compilation of Malayalam proverbs. The first travelogue in Malayalam language was written by Rev (Fr) Thomas of the Catholic Church, which may be cited as the finest example of early Malayalam prose. In Malayalam poetical works, the name of Joseph Fenn alias Chathu Menon (1778-1837) became well known through his controversial poem ò¯œ‰³“¯¥¹ (Axe of folly) wherein he had severely criticised some of the social superstitions prevailed in those days. He was the munshi (teacher) of Benjamin Bailey, a well-known missionary connected with Malayalam language. Unfortunately those days’ recognised scholars and literary men were sceptical of the literary merit of his poetical work. But it succeeded in serving as a bridge between local and foreign writers of those days. The enthusiasm of missionaries to promote Malayalam was much in evidence in these attempts.
Another distinct role played by the missionaries was in their efforts to start printing and publishing in Kerala. It enabled the growth of the language further. The credit of starting a press in Kerala goes to the Church Missionary Benjamin Bailey (1791-1871) who was also in-charge of the Bible translation project instituted by the then British representative Col. Munro. He started a press at Kottayam and instituted round scripts into Malayalam. The first Malayalam letter type is seen in Hortus Malabaricus (¶‰¥¨¯¥¯£¹) printed and published in Amsterdam, Holland in 1686. This book deals with the medicinal qualities of herbal plants of Kerala comprising 12 volumes compiled by Mathews Padre with the patronage of Van Reeds, the then Dutch Governor of Kerala. But the first book published by complete Malayalam letter type was ¹¶À¶ªš¯Ü™¹ written by a Carmelite, Clement Peanius. It was printed in Rome in 1722. The first book printed in India using an Indian script was a catechism “Doctorina Christa” (1556) a Tamil book by Francis Xavier. But the first major work printed in this genre was the “New Testament” printed at Kottayam in 1829 and later on “Old Testament” in 1841 by Dr. Bailey. Before that only some leaflets were printed. We can earnestly say that the establishment of printing press and emergence of publishing attributed to the growth of literature-reading public.
Besides these, the pen of missionaries extended to translation also. It was Rev. Cladius Buchanan (1766-1815) who gave inspiration for translating bible into Indian languages for the purpose of missionary outreach. As a result, three Syrian priests and one Timapah Pillai translated the 4 gospels into Malayalam and printed and published them in Bombay in 1811. Benjamin Bailey himself did the translation and printing of New Testament (1829) and Old Testament (1841), which were mentioned earlier. Dr. H. Gundert who had a special gift for languages both classical and modern did the greatest Malayalam translation of Bible. Besides German, his mother tongue, he knew Hebrew, Greek and Malayalam. Apart from Bible the missionaries did other translations also. Bailey has translated the “Book of Common Prayer” into Malayalam. Again Dr. Watt’s “First and Second Catechism” and Munray’s “Abridged Grammar” became familiar to Keralites through the translation of Bailey. Following the footsteps of the foreign missionaries, the local clergymen and lay leaders also enriched the field of translation. Some of the valuable works among these were translations of John Bunyan’s well-known classic “The Pilgrim’s Progress” by Archdeacon Koshy, “Butler’s Analogy” by Rev. George Mathan and “Indian History” by Aymanam P. John. Oommen Philopose’s introduction of Shakespeare’s “Comedy of Errors” as a novel in Malayalam under the title ‚࣯¦¯È¹ (Almarattam) is also worth mentioning.
Another field, which the missionaries were pioneering, was in the publishing of magazine and newspaper. The first Malayalam magazine ¥¯»£¯ü¯¥¹ was started by the Bassel missionary Rev. H. Gundert in 1847. In the same year itself the first newspaper in Malayalam õ°¶£¯š¤¹ was published from Tellicherry. The editor of this daily was Fredrik Miller, a disciple of Rev. H. Gundert. In the next year the CMS missionaries started ò¯œœ°¶À¹. It is the only Malayalam magazine published without any interruption for more than 130 years.
Adding to these valuable contributions to the language the missionaries without any hesitation undertook the Herculean task of compiling dictionary. This task was initiated by Benjamin Bailey. As a result of 20 years strenuous work he prepared the “Dictionary of Colloquial Malayalam” in 1846. Unfortunately it could not be printed. In 1848 he published his second dictionary “A Concise Dictionary of English and Malayalam”. This was the first English-Malayalam dictionary. It was Fr. Johann Ernestus Hanxleden (Arnos Padiri) who prepared the first Malayalam Lexicon. £§¤¯ïœ°ŒÊ² (1867) is the first Malayalam-Malayalam dictionary compiled by the Church Missionary Richard Collins. Following this, Dr. Herman Gundert’s famous work “The English-Malayalam dictionary” came out in 1872. Bailey’s dictionary is considered as the base of this work.
The above is an outline of the significant contributions of Christian missionaries in the various stages of early development of Malayalam as a language. They laid the foundation stones for the much-needed stages in the development of language such as initiating a scientific study of language, enriching the language by providing good translations of well-known works, starting of printing and publishing of books and compiling textbooks and dictionaries. Thus they became the architects in the growth of Malayalam as a language. The efforts of missionaries extended to all vistas of the development of language. Truly speaking, the contributions of Christian missionaries towards Malayalam as a language and its development are really laudable and they are the invincible God-sent Samaritans to Malayalam language because they voluntarily did all these from nothingness to the ground level.
The name of Dr. Herman Gundert can be read with history of Malayalam language. Though he came from Germany for propagating Christianity, it is very exiting to mention here that he is first person to compile a dictionary in this language. Besides, the newspaper of Malayalam ¥¯»£¯ü¯¥¹ was started under his initiative indicates the revolutionary act by Dr. Gundert in Malayalam language.
There are a few other Missionaries came to Kerala, whose unique contributions also great as Gundert’s. Undoubtedly the main objective of the missionaries is to preach the love of Jesus Christ and to propagate Christianity. For this purpose they were required to learn the language of the people of Kerala. Fortunately, the missionaries who came to Kerala were well educated and gifted with special aptitude in language. So naturally they became the pioneers to study and analyse the Malayalam language. This is an attempt to trace out contributions of the Missionaries who carry with heart this God’s own countries language unlike their own culture and language.
The Christian (Catholic) missionaries (Jesuit & Carmelite) came to Kerala even before the arrival of Portuguese captain Vasco Dagama in 1498. The protestant missionaries came to Kerala mainly through three major organizations viz. London Missionary Society in Travancore, Church Missionary Society in Cochin and Bassel Mission in Malabar. William Tobias Ringeltaube in 1806 (LMS) and Thomas Norton in 1814 (CMS) started their work in South and North Travancore. At that time there was no uniformly standard language in these areas. Perhaps this is one of the reasons, which prompted them to study and analyse the language.
Their important contribution to this field was spreading of English education system. In those days educational institutions were known as ¯”«¯§, administered by hereditary teachers where children of higher community were only admitted. Through the advent of Christianity, a welcome change took place to this situation.
In 1818 Rev. Charles Mead, an Anglican London Missionary started the first English school in the erstwhile Travancore (Nagarcoil). This school was later known as Nagarcoil Seminary. Later it was affiliated to Madras University as a college. Quite convinced by the importance of English Education, the then Maharaja of Travancore Sri. Swathi Thirunal visited there and sought the services of experienced teachers to start a similar school in Trivandrum. Eventually Mr. John Roberts, the Anglican headmaster of the seminary, came and started the first English school, “Free School” in Trivandrum in 1834. It became famous as “Robert’s Free School”. Later it became the University College. The Fort School, Trivandrum was also started in 1864 by the missionary Ms. Augusta Blandford under the banner of Church of England Zenana Missionary Society (CEZMS). In North Travancore the first school was started at Kottayam in 1820. The master brain behind it was Mrs. Baker (Sr). This school was exclusively for girls. Later this was named after Baker Memorial School to commemorate the memories of Mrs. Baker (Sr) and her daughter-in-law Mrs. Baker (Jr). In Malabar the first English school was started in 1848 at Kallayi. Later it was shifted to Calicut. At that time the teachers and principals of these institutions were missionaries.
The first academic institution to offer a course in Malayalam was Jesuit Seminary at Vaipicotta, established by the Portuguese in 1581. Bishop Francis Roz and others prepared materials for this purpose. But there was no uniformly codified language for Travancore, Cochin and Malabar even though Malayalam evolved as a distinct language in 9th century AD. Besides §±§¯˜°§‰¹, written by an unknown author in the 14th century no significant studies describing the language took place till 18th century. At that time Malayalam was looked upon by the local scholars as an inferior language and they revelled more in their Sanskrit scholarship rather than in Malayalam. In these circumstances the efforts of Christian missionaries helped to promote the beauty and identity of this language. The names of Fr. Ernestin, Fr. Paulino, Fr. John Baptista and Fr. Angelos Francis (all Catholic bishops) rightfully find their due place in the early history of Malayalam. The last among them was a Bishop at Varapuzha, who has the credit of writing the first dissertation on Malayalam (1700). But it was written in Latin.
The 19th century is considered as the golden era for Malayalam studies. Many Christian missionaries came to this field and they gave scientific framework to the Malayalam language. Among these was publishing the book “Outline of a Grammar of Malayalam language” by F.S. Spring in 1839. This was followed by J.S. Peet’s (a Church missionary) “A Short Grammar of Malayalam language”. During this period a Government publication on Malayalam Grammar is also done with the help of J.S. Peet. Later in 1851, a pioneer work of Malayalam linguistic studies £§¤¯¨ ¢¯¬¯ª»¯‰¥—¹ by Rev (Dr) Herman Gundert, a Bassel missionary from Germany, came to light. Afterwards, he compiled a dictionary also. Meanwhile he contributed much towards translating the Bible in Malayalam language. Then the missionaries took the initiative to have comparative studies of Malayalam with other South Indian languages. Rev. Robert Caldwell, a Church missionary who later became the bishop of CMS, made a comparative study on Dravidian languages including Malayalam. He published a book entitled “A Comparative Grammar of Dravidian and South Indian Family of languages” in 1856. The book “A progressive Grammar of the Malayalam language for Europeans” (1884) by Rev. L.J. Frohenmayer (Bassel missionary) helped other foreign missionaries to study the language. Besides these scholarly missionaries, Richard Collins, a CMS missionary and former Principal of CMS College took prompt step to affiliate this college to the Madras University. He also earned great fame by writing literary works and a book on synonyms in Malayalam. The serious studies on Malayalam among native scholars were also marked by the book £§¤¯ï¤²µ“ ª»¯‰¥—¹ published in 1863 by Rev. George Mathen, a CMS priest. Then a Syrian Catholic priest, Fr. Gerard, wrote the first comprehensive book on Malayalam Rhetoric. He published his book §Ã¯¥«¯¸½˜¹ (Rhetoric) in 1881. The books on rhetoric published earlier were devoted to poetry only. The evergreen work of Malayalam Grammar ¶‰¥¨¯—°œ±¤¹ by A.R. Rajaraja Varma came out much later (1895).
The contributions of Christian missionaries to the growth of Malayalam as a language were not only confined to scriptures and language studies but they also extended to other branches for the promotion of language including press, translation, literature, journalism, publication of books etc. The first Malayalam reader ¯”£¯§ was compiled by the Bassel missionary Dr. H. Gundert, consisting parts of Malayalam classics like ¥¯£ü¥°˜¹, ¥¯£¯¤—¹, ¢¯¥˜¹, Æü¥°˜¹, œ¨ü¥°˜¹, ¶ª˜¯¨ü¥°˜¹, ü¯—‰»³½˜¹ and ò¯œÔ¯œ. The missionaries were also very keen on promoting scientific matters in Malayalam language. ª°š»¯£³§‰Äà, a general knowledge digest (1858), £´‹ü¥°˜¹ dealing with animal life by J.G. Beuttler (1861) and ½‰´˜°«¯¸½˜¹, a textbook on Physics by L.J. Frohenmayer were published in this category. ©µÆ¯Þ£¯®¯¥¹ by Dr. Gundert was a noteworthy compilation of Malayalam proverbs. The first travelogue in Malayalam language was written by Rev (Fr) Thomas of the Catholic Church, which may be cited as the finest example of early Malayalam prose. In Malayalam poetical works, the name of Joseph Fenn alias Chathu Menon (1778-1837) became well known through his controversial poem ò¯œ‰³“¯¥¹ (Axe of folly) wherein he had severely criticised some of the social superstitions prevailed in those days. He was the munshi (teacher) of Benjamin Bailey, a well-known missionary connected with Malayalam language. Unfortunately those days’ recognised scholars and literary men were sceptical of the literary merit of his poetical work. But it succeeded in serving as a bridge between local and foreign writers of those days. The enthusiasm of missionaries to promote Malayalam was much in evidence in these attempts.
Another distinct role played by the missionaries was in their efforts to start printing and publishing in Kerala. It enabled the growth of the language further. The credit of starting a press in Kerala goes to the Church Missionary Benjamin Bailey (1791-1871) who was also in-charge of the Bible translation project instituted by the then British representative Col. Munro. He started a press at Kottayam and instituted round scripts into Malayalam. The first Malayalam letter type is seen in Hortus Malabaricus (¶‰¥¨¯¥¯£¹) printed and published in Amsterdam, Holland in 1686. This book deals with the medicinal qualities of herbal plants of Kerala comprising 12 volumes compiled by Mathews Padre with the patronage of Van Reeds, the then Dutch Governor of Kerala. But the first book published by complete Malayalam letter type was ¹¶À¶ªš¯Ü™¹ written by a Carmelite, Clement Peanius. It was printed in Rome in 1722. The first book printed in India using an Indian script was a catechism “Doctorina Christa” (1556) a Tamil book by Francis Xavier. But the first major work printed in this genre was the “New Testament” printed at Kottayam in 1829 and later on “Old Testament” in 1841 by Dr. Bailey. Before that only some leaflets were printed. We can earnestly say that the establishment of printing press and emergence of publishing attributed to the growth of literature-reading public.
Besides these, the pen of missionaries extended to translation also. It was Rev. Cladius Buchanan (1766-1815) who gave inspiration for translating bible into Indian languages for the purpose of missionary outreach. As a result, three Syrian priests and one Timapah Pillai translated the 4 gospels into Malayalam and printed and published them in Bombay in 1811. Benjamin Bailey himself did the translation and printing of New Testament (1829) and Old Testament (1841), which were mentioned earlier. Dr. H. Gundert who had a special gift for languages both classical and modern did the greatest Malayalam translation of Bible. Besides German, his mother tongue, he knew Hebrew, Greek and Malayalam. Apart from Bible the missionaries did other translations also. Bailey has translated the “Book of Common Prayer” into Malayalam. Again Dr. Watt’s “First and Second Catechism” and Munray’s “Abridged Grammar” became familiar to Keralites through the translation of Bailey. Following the footsteps of the foreign missionaries, the local clergymen and lay leaders also enriched the field of translation. Some of the valuable works among these were translations of John Bunyan’s well-known classic “The Pilgrim’s Progress” by Archdeacon Koshy, “Butler’s Analogy” by Rev. George Mathan and “Indian History” by Aymanam P. John. Oommen Philopose’s introduction of Shakespeare’s “Comedy of Errors” as a novel in Malayalam under the title ‚࣯¦¯È¹ (Almarattam) is also worth mentioning.
Another field, which the missionaries were pioneering, was in the publishing of magazine and newspaper. The first Malayalam magazine ¥¯»£¯ü¯¥¹ was started by the Bassel missionary Rev. H. Gundert in 1847. In the same year itself the first newspaper in Malayalam õ°¶£¯š¤¹ was published from Tellicherry. The editor of this daily was Fredrik Miller, a disciple of Rev. H. Gundert. In the next year the CMS missionaries started ò¯œœ°¶À¹. It is the only Malayalam magazine published without any interruption for more than 130 years.
Adding to these valuable contributions to the language the missionaries without any hesitation undertook the Herculean task of compiling dictionary. This task was initiated by Benjamin Bailey. As a result of 20 years strenuous work he prepared the “Dictionary of Colloquial Malayalam” in 1846. Unfortunately it could not be printed. In 1848 he published his second dictionary “A Concise Dictionary of English and Malayalam”. This was the first English-Malayalam dictionary. It was Fr. Johann Ernestus Hanxleden (Arnos Padiri) who prepared the first Malayalam Lexicon. £§¤¯ïœ°ŒÊ² (1867) is the first Malayalam-Malayalam dictionary compiled by the Church Missionary Richard Collins. Following this, Dr. Herman Gundert’s famous work “The English-Malayalam dictionary” came out in 1872. Bailey’s dictionary is considered as the base of this work.
The above is an outline of the significant contributions of Christian missionaries in the various stages of early development of Malayalam as a language. They laid the foundation stones for the much-needed stages in the development of language such as initiating a scientific study of language, enriching the language by providing good translations of well-known works, starting of printing and publishing of books and compiling textbooks and dictionaries. Thus they became the architects in the growth of Malayalam as a language. The efforts of missionaries extended to all vistas of the development of language. Truly speaking, the contributions of Christian missionaries towards Malayalam as a language and its development are really laudable and they are the invincible God-sent Samaritans to Malayalam language because they voluntarily did all these from nothingness to the ground level.
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