Missionaries who rendered yeoman service for Tamil
B. Kolappan| They made seminal contribution towards development of language |
George Uglow Pope
CHENNAI: Long before A.K. Ramanujan's poems of Love and War brought the beauty of sangam poetry to the English speaking world, Joseph Constantius Beschi, G.U. Pope, Robert Caldwell and other Christian missionaries drew the attention of the West to the great literary tradition of the Tamil language. The purpose of their visit, of course, was missionary work. They learnt Tamil because they realised that without knowing the local language they could not work among the people. But with missionary zeal, they mastered the language and made seminal contribution towards the development of the language.
There is no denying the fact that if Tamil has achieved universal recognition as a classical language, the ground work was done by these missionaries. Apart from missionaries, many officers and doctors also learnt the language and made contribution. But a few were widely known for their outstanding work.
There is no denying the fact that if Tamil has achieved universal recognition as a classical language, the ground work was done by these missionaries. Apart from missionaries, many officers and doctors also learnt the language and made contribution. But a few were widely known for their outstanding work.
According to K. Meenakshisundaram, the author of the book, “The contribution of European scholars to Tamil,” the single most significant contribution of the Europeans was the development of prose in Tamil language, which until then had a rich poetic tradition. They studied subjects such as religion, medicine, history, literature, grammar, geography and science and wrote profusely on these subjects. The language gained greater reach when Barthalomew Ziegenbalg set up a printing press in Tharangampadi. “Their period in Tamil Nadu could be termed the golden period of Tamil,” says Dr. Meenakshisundaram.
The pioneer among the missionaries was Robert De Nobili, a Jesuit. He arrived at Madurai in 1606. Though not a Tamil scholar, Nobili, who declared himself as a Roman Brahmin and dressed like a Hindu sanyasi, spoke and wrote in a prose accessible to the layman. Besides writing 15 books, he had compiled a Tamil-Portuguese dictionary. He coined many Biblical words in Tamil.
Joseph Constantius Beschi later known as Veeramaamunivar and the author of Thembavani, was a scholar in many languages. He lived 42 years in Tamil Nadu and for a foreigner his output was quite breathtaking. Fascinated by the beauty of Kamabaramayaman, he wished to create a similar epic for Christians. Thus was born Thempavani, the biography of St. Joseph in verse.
He was also the author of Paramarthaguru stories. He compiled Chathurakarathi.
While both Nobili and Beschi were Catholics, Ziegenbalg was the first missionary to introduce Protestant Christianity in Tamil Nadu. He was a German and arrived at Tharangampadi in 1706.
Veeramaamunivar
Ziegenbalg translated the Tamil book ‘Ulaga Needhi' (Universal Justice) into German ‘An account of Malabarians' was another piece of work published by him. He printed the New Testament. Though every missionary contributed in his own way to the development of Tamil, it was Robert Caldwell's ground-breaking philological work, A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South Indian Family of Languages (1856), argued that the Dravidian languages had a common origin and were a separate family distinct from the Sanskrit/Aryan family of languages. Besides coining the word ‘Dravidian' to describe the languages and people of Southern India, he outlined the theory that Tamil culture, society and politics had a separate and independent existence prior to the coming of Aryan Brahmin colonists to the south.
Dr Vincent Kumaradoss, the author of Caldwell's biography, says his arguments paved the way for constructing a new identity providing a significant ideological weapon for the emergence of anti-Brahmin cultural and political movements. His second major comprehensive single work was A Political and General History of the District of Tinnevelly in the Madras Presidency (1881).
Another missionary who was well-known to the Tamils is G.U. Pope. His passion for the Tamil language was exemplified by the fact that he wanted to be remembered as a student of Tamil. Besides Thirukural, he translated Thiruvachagam, Naladiyar and many Sangam poetries.
In his preface to translation of Tirukural, he wrote, “Tamil literature was designed to create high moral standards, ethical codes and Thirukkural is a great example of that. It is in a land of people with very high ethical codes and who nurture human discipline that such moral books are created and could be created. Yes! Thirukkural, the unique book, has come to remove the impurities of this world.”
Dr. Samuel Fisk Green worked among the Tamils in Jaffna. When he realised that the natives could not grasp the medical words in a new language, he learnt Tamil and found Tamil words for medical terms. He also translated several medical textbooks from English to Tamil.
In his will, he called himself the Medical Evangelist to the Tamils