CHAPTER XXXII Previous chapter

TRANSLATIONS INTO DRAVIDIAN LANGUAGES, I

DRAVIDIAN (Sanskrit Drauida) is the name given to a

collection of Indian peoples and to their family of
languages, comprising all the principal forms of speech of
Southern India. These languages have been restricted for
ages to the territory they occupy at the present day. A
number of the Dravidian tribes are gradually becoming
Hinduized. Their language adopts an ever-increasing Aryan
element, and in time will be quite superseded by Aryan
speech. The main languages belonging to this family are
the Tamil, the Telugu, the Kanarese or Kannadi, the
Malayalam, the Gond and the Malta. The application of the
epithet Dravidian to the whole family is hardly correct,
according to Pope, as that term must include Marathi. They
have also been styled Tamilian, from Tamil, their chief
member.

The alphabets of the Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Sinhalese

and Burmese have all been derived from the Sanskrit. The
chief peculiarity in the type of all these alphabets consists
in their spreading out the ancient Indian letters into
elaborate mazes of circular and curling form. Roundness is
the prevailing mark of them all, though it is more
remarkable in the Burmese than in any other, Burmese
letters being entirely globular and having hardly such a
thing as a straight line in them.

The Tamil — as difficult as any six European languages —

is the vernacular speech of about sixteen millions of people
inhabiting the great plain of the Carnatic, in the Madras
Presidency. The Tamil region includes a portion of South
Travancore, the entire Zillahs of Tinnevelly — that
stronghold of devil worship — Madura, Trichinopoly,
Coimbatore, a great part of Salem, and of North Arcot, with
the whole of South Arcot and Chingleput. North Ceylon
also is a Tamil colony. Tamil communities are to be found
in most of the British cantonments in the Deccan and in
various colonies of the empire. It is the most important of
the Dravidian family of the non-Aryan languages of India.

The first translator of the New Testament into Tamil was

Bartholomaus Ziegenbalg (1682-1719), a German by birth,
and member of the Danish Mission at Tranquebar, the
printing of which, in 1715, was supported by the S.P.C.K.
Ziegenbalg was assisted in his translational work by Johann
Ernst Gründler. The Old Testament (Genesis to Ruth, by
Ziegenbalg) was completed by Ziegenbalg’s successor,
Benjamin Schultze, in 1727; the Bible, as a whole, by
Johann Philipp Fabricius, 1782.

Thirty-six years after the appearance of the Tamil Bible

appeared the earliest version of the Liturgy, entitled: “The
Tamul translation of the Book of Common Prayer, etc., Griffiths 169:2
together with the Psalter or Psalms of David as they are
appointed to be sung in churches.” Serampore: Mission
Press, 1818. 12, 378 pages, 8vo. The preliminary matter
includes title, table of contents, and dedication to Sir
Robert Brownrigg, Governor of Ceylon, dated Colombo,
18 February, 1817, both in English and in Tamil. Also
various tables.

The translator was Christian David, a Ceylon Tamil and the

first native priest of the Church of England, whom Bishop
Reginald Heber (1783-1826) had ordained at Calcutta in
1824. His grandson, of the same name, celebrated in 1910,
at the age of 75, the jubilee of his appointment as
incumbent of St. James’ Church at Kotahena, a district of
Colombo not far from St. Thomas’ College.

In 1819 the S.P.C.K. published an edition in quarto, at Griffiths 169:3

Madras, including the Liturgical Epistles and Gospels, and
the complete Psalter, translated by Rottler (479, 270 pages).
The translation was completed in 1815. A somewhat
abridged edition of this Prayer Book, omitting the
Liturgical Epistles and Gospels, but including the Psalter,
was printed at the Vepery Press, Madras, in 1820. Part I; Griffiths 169:4
115 pages; Part II, the Psalter, followed by a glossary,
having no pagination. It ends on sig. Uu3a.

The next edition, the Prayer Book with the Psalter pointed
for singing, appeared in 1828. It was printed at the Vepery
Press of the S.P.C.K. 344, 176 pages, 8vo. It was a Griffiths 169:5
revision, undertaken by Rottler at the suggestion of Bishop
Heber, and with financial aid from him and other donors.

The translator and reviser, the Rev. Johann Peter Rottler,

was born in Germany in 1749, and received his training and
education there. During the early years of his missionary
career he had been a member of the Danish Mission at
Tranquebar. He laboured at Madras from 1803 until 1836,
and was the last of the old S.P.C.K. missionaries in that
place. From 1818 until 1828 he was in charge of the
Vepery Mission, and died in 1836, aged 86 years.

In 1841 the Ordination Service appeared from the Vepery

Press, translated by the Rev. Valentine. Daniel Coombes.
The translator had been educated at Bishop’s College, was
ordered deacon 1833, and ordained priest in 1834. He was
stationed at Tanjore, 1834-36, and at Combaconum, one of
the most idolatrous and wealthiest of South Indian cities,
from 1837 until his death in 1844. The Thirty-Nine Articles
were translated by the Rev. Adam Compton Thompson,
and published in 1842.

A revised edition of the Liturgy, the work of a committee

of missionaries, appeared in 1846, entitled: The Book of
Common Prayer .... In Tamil. By the Commission of Griffiths 169:8
Missionaries in Tinnevelly, appointed for the revision of
the Tamil Prayer Book. Madras: S.P.C.K. (22), 214, 216
pages, 8vo. The revision, probably, did not satisfy the
Tamil Protestant inhabitants, who in 1850 addressed a letter
to Bishop James Chapman (1845-1862), which, together
with the bishop’s reply, was published, entitled: A Letter to
the . . . Bishop of the Diocese from the principal Tamul
Protestant Inhabitants of Colombo on the subject of the
translation of the Holy Scriptures, and the Liturgy of the
Church of England into the Tamul language [Colombo,
1850]. 12mo.

One of the revisers of the edition of 1846 was the Rev.

Robert Caldwell (1814-91); in later years, from 1871 until
shortly before his death, coadjutor bishop of Madras as
bishop of Tinnevelly, and well-known author of the classic
work on the Dravidian languages: A comparative Grammar
of the Dravidian or South-Indian family of Languages.

Further revised editions of the Liturgy appeared in 1859 Griffiths 169:10 (1859)
(385 pages), and in 1861, Madras, S.P.C.K. In 1873 the Griffiths 169:13 (1861, reissued
1873)
same society published at Madras an entirely new revision
(xxxv, 184, 164 pages), in which some of the chief revisers
were Bishop Caldwell and the Rev. Henry Bower, a
Eurasian and translator of the Bible into Tamil. In
recognition of his work, Archbishop Tait conferred, in
1872, upon Bower the degree of D.D. Bower died in
Madras, September 2, 1885, at the age of seventy-two.

A revised edition, sanctioned by the bishop of Madras, and

published by the S.P.C.K. at Madras in 1895, contains xlix, Griffiths 169:17
648 pages, demy 8vo. It has an English title; reverse blank,
excepting the line: “S.P.C.K. Press, Vepery, Madras,
1895.” Then follows the Tamil title, reverse blank. Pages v,
vi, table of contents in English; vii, viii, the same in Tamil.
The main headings of the Offices and Services are in
English and in Tamil.

Messrs. Longmans & Co., London and Madras, published

in 1859 Dureisâni-Tamil-Puttagam. The Lady’s Tamil Griffiths 169:12
Book, containing the Morning and Evening Services, and
other portions of the Book of Common Prayer in
Romanized Tamil, accompanied by the English version in
parallel columns; together with an Anglo-Tamil grammar
and vocabulary by Elijah Hoole. 148 pages, 8vo.

Elijah Hoole was one of the four C.M.S. Tamils who in

1863-65 were ordained in the Jaffna Mission. It is quite
probable that he was thus named after Elijah Hoole, the
well-known Tamil scholar and Wesleyan Methodist
missionary (1798-1872). The ordination of these four
candidates evoked from Bishop Piers Calveley Claughton
(1814-84) a highly encouraging letter on the work of the
Jaffna Mission. Claughton, first bishop of St. Helena
(1859-62), had been translated from there, succeeding
James Chapman, the first bishop of Colombo (1845-62).
Claughton himself retired from his bishopric in 1870, but
during the eight years of his episcopate he never failed to
bear testimony to the fidelity and worthiness of the native
clergy.

That there have been for a number of years two different

Tamil translations of the Prayer Book has hampered the
work of the Church considerably. This difficulty is now
being overcome by the action of a joint committee of the
S.P.G. and C.M.S. missionaries; and before long there will
be one Tamil Prayer Book.-S.P.G. report for 1912, p. 128.
Next in importance to the Tamil is the Telugu[1], a lineal
descendant of the Andhra dialect of Old Dravidian. It is
spoken by the Dravidian race inhabiting the east coast of [1] According to George Hibbert-
the peninsula of Hindustan, India, north of the city of Ware, Christian Missions in the
Telugu Country, p. I, “Telugu” is
Madras and south of the Godabari river. Linguistically it is “ultimately derived from Trilinga,
bounded in the north by the Oriyā (Uriya, beginning with that is, tri, or three, and linga, or
the district of Ganjam); on the north-west by the Marathi, lingam, the emblem of the god
on the south-west by the Kanarese, and on the south by the Shiva. Tradition has it that Shiva
Tamil. It differs from the Tamil more widely than do the descended in the form of a lingam
on three mountains, Kalesvaram,
other cognate dialects. The language is refined, sweet and Srisailam and Bhimesvaram.”
flowing, so that it has been called the Italian of the East. It
is spoken by about twenty-one million people. It is also
called Gentoo; from the Portuguese Gentio, i.e., Gentile, a
name formerly applied to the Telugu-speaking natives of
Southern India and to their language.

The editions of the Liturgy, like those of the Bible, are

printed in the Telugu character, which was derived from
the Brahmi alphabet of Asôka (about 270 B.C.). It is written
from left to right, and closely resembles the Kanarese
alphabet.

The Telugu Mission of the S.P.G. in the Cuddapah district,

Madras Presidency, originated with a few families from the
London Missionary Society, when their pastor, the Rev.
William Howell, a Eurasian, joined the Church of England
in 1842. The same year Howell translated into Telugu the
Prayer Book and part of the Bible. He remained in the
service of the S.P.G. at Valaveram and other places until
1855. In 1856 he was pensioned off by the society. He died
in Madras about 1867. In 1858 the S.P.C.K. published The Griffiths 172:4 (1858)
Book of Common Prayer . . . in Telugu, at Madras. 8vo.

Nine years before, in 1849, P. R. Hunt, at the American Griffiths 172:3

Mission Press, Madras, published: A Teloogoo translation
of the Book of Common Prayer ... consisting of the
portions in ordinary use [Morning and Evening Prayer, the
Litany, Collects and part of the Communion Office, also
Hymns, &c.]. x, 132 pages, 24mo.

Another revision of the Telugu translation was put out in Griffiths 172:6
1880. It contains an English title, to which are added the
words: In Telugu. Revised edition, sanctioned by the Lord
Bishop of Madras[2]. Madras: Published by the Madras
Diocesan Committee of the S.P.C.K., and sold at their [2] The Right Rev. Frederic Gell,
depository, 17 Church Road, Vepery, 1880. The reverse bishop of Madras, from 1861 to
1899. He died at Coonoor, India,
has the line: S.P.C.K. Press, Vepery, Madras, 1880. Then March 25, 1902, in his eighty-
follows the Telugu title, of which the literal translation second year.
reads: In England | the Established Church using | the
Common Prayer Book. | Also | Sacraments which are
administered. | With these also | in Churches the Psalter it
must be read | the David’s Psalms. | And also, | Priests and
Under Priests to the setting aside, | this appropriate form
and manner | in this are contained | . . . Madras, | . . .
1880[3]. Reverse is blank. Page v, the Contents of this
Book, reverse blank. Pages vii, viii contain the Table of [3] The translation was furnished
Contents in Telugu. The Prayer Book begins with: The by the Rev. W. I. Chamberlain,
Order how the Psalter is appointed to be read, and ends Ph.D., for many years missionary
of the Reformed (Dutch) Church
with The Commination Service. Then follow two blank
of America at Madras, and now
pages and part II, containing the Psalter (pp. 1-232); the secretary of the Board of Foreign
Ordinal (pp. 233-266); The Articles of Religion (pp. 267- Missions of that Church at New
286) ; and a Table of Kindred and Affinity (pp. 287, 288). York, N.Y.
The whole book counts xxv, 206, (2), 288 pages, 8vo.
Printed in long lines. The section headings are in English
and in Telugu, but the running headlines only in Telugu.

One of the chief revisers of this edition was the Rev. John
Clay. He was educated at Vepery Seminary, undertook the
English work at Cuddapah in March, 1854, and became in
September of the same year the first S.P.G. missionary at
that place. He died in 1884, after having rendered faithful
service at Cuddapah and at Mutialpad (Mutyalapad). He
was a good Telugu scholar, and helped also in the revision
of the Telugu Bible. He was, in addition, the author of
some useful works of instruction in that language.

CHAPTER XXXIII

TRANSLATIONS INTO DRAVIDIAN LANGUAGES, II

THE Kanarese is the language of the table-land of Mysore, Now called Kannada
of part of the Nizam’s dominions in Coorg, and of a part of
the Kanara. It is also spoken in South Mahratta districts of
the Bombay Presidency. The indigenous name Kannada or
Karnâtaka is said to mean the “black country,” so called
from the colour of the soil. The language is spoken by
about ten million people. Its alphabet resembles somewhat
the Tamil. All the editions of Bible and Prayer Book are
printed in the Kanarese character, which .is closely related
to the Telugu.

A Kanarese translation of the Liturgy was made by the

Rev. Henry Valentine Conolly, of Calcutta, East Indies
Army. It was printed for J. E. Thomas, Esq., at the Bellary
Mission Press, 1838. 131 pages, 8vo. The translation ends Griffiths 72:1
with the Catechism.

After an interval of more than fifty years a new version was

published in 1891, in which the Rev. C. S. Rivington,
Canon James Taylor, Narayan Vishnu Athawale, and the Griffiths 72:2 (apparently
catechist J. Mahade were the chief collaborators. untraced)

Canon Taylor and Rivington are mentioned above in

Chapter XXX. Athawale was a converted Brahman and
native Government clerk, who gave up his office in 1874
and entered the S.P.G. service. He was ordered deacon in
1884, and ordained priest in 1891 by the bishop of
Bombay. He was stationed at Ahmadnagar from 1884 to
1888, having laboured before this at Kolhapur and
Pandharpur, the capital of Mangalvedha. From
Ahmadnagar he was transferred to Hubli (Dharwar). He
died at Sonay, July 16, 1907. Athawale and Mahade were
also joint translators of “Three Church catechisms for the
use of Christian children.” — John Mah(a)de helped the
Cowley Fathers in Bombay for many years. In 1904 he was
ordered deacon, and ordained priest in 1906 by the bishop
of Bombay. Since May, 1910, he has been S.P.G. pastor at
Hubli, in charge of the Kanarese Mission at that place.

A complete translation of the Liturgy by a committee of

S.P.G. missionaries, consisting of the above-mentioned and Griffiths 72:3 (apparently
untraced)
others was made in 1895. It was printed in 1896 at Bombay
by the diocesan S.P.G.
Malayalam, the language of the” mountain region,” is
spoken by some six million people on the western side of
the Malaya Mountain — from Cape Dilly, near Mangalore,
to Trivandrum, the capital of Travancore, not far from Cape
Comorin. The language is very closely related to Tamil, of
which it is a “much-altered offshoot.” According to others,
Tamil and Malayalam are two dialects of one and the same
language, which in its turn is closely related to Kanarese.
Under Brahminical influence a large infusion of Sanskrit
words into Malayalam has taken place.

A translation of the Liturgy into Malayalam was published Griffiths 101:2&3 (1829 &
at Cottayam in 1830 [1838] by the Church Mission Press. 1830); 101:4 (1838)
25, 340,35 pages, 8vo. It was the work of the Rev.
Benjamin Bailey (1791-1871), a C.M.S. worker since 1812
and translator of the Scriptures into Malayalam. In 1818-19
the well-known Travancore triumvirate, Benjamin Bailey,
Henry Baker (1793-1866) and Joseph Fenn (1790-1878),
went to Cottayam, especially commissioned to work for the
revival of the Syrian Church. To Bailey fell the work of
translating the Bible and the Liturgy into Malayalam. He
was the founder of the Cottayam Press. His whole
knowledge of type-founding was derived from books, and
he had no other assistants than a carpenter and two
silversmiths. With their help he constructed a press and cast
the type needed for the printing of his translations and of
other books published at the Cottayam Press. In 1850 he
retired after a service of thirty-three years.

An edition, published in 1898, has lii, 511, 335, 82 pages. Griffiths 101:8&9 (1898);
Demy 12mo. The latest edition was put out by the S.P.C.K. 101:10 (1907)
in 1907. It has (8), liii, (1), 398, 256, 101, (2) pages; demy,
12mo. The initial (8) pages contain the bastard title,
reading: “The Book of Common Prayer,” followed by the
same words in Malayalam. Reverse blank. Page (3) the
Book of Common Prayer [Malayalam title, covering 11
lines, follows]. Kottayam: Printed for the S.P.C.K. at the
C.M.S. Press, 1907. Reverse contains the printer’s mark.
Pp. (5, 6), the Contents of this Book. Pp. (7, 8), the same in
Malayalam. Then follows the whole Book of Common
Prayer, including the prefaces. Part II contains the Psalter;
and Part III has the Ordinal, a Form of Prayer for the
Twenty-second Day of January, and Articles of Religion.
The running headlines· on the obverse are in Malayalam,
on the reverse in English. The headings of sections and
sub-sections, etc., are in English and in Malayalam. Nos. 1-
5, i.e., the three prefaces, the Order how the Psalter is
appointed to be read, and the Order how the rest of Holy
Scripture is appointed to be read, are in English, without a
translation.

The Gôndi (Khondi) is one of the minor dialects cognate to

Tamil. It is spoken by some one and one-eighth millions of
original hill-men around Chindwara, on the central plateau
of India. The Gonds, like the Kolarians, were driven by the
Aryan invaders into the mountains and jungles. Hence the
country is sometimes ethnologically called Gondwana.

As yet no complete translation of the Liturgy into Gôndi

has appeared; only beginnings of it by the Rev. Henry
Drummond Williamson, of Corpus Christi College,
Cambridge. He was designated in 1877 by the C.M.S. to
the work among these hill tribes, and laboured at Mandla
until 1893. He has published through the S.P.C.R. a Gôndi
grammar and vocabulary. The dialect which he is mainly
representing is Mandla or Mandlaha, also called Parsi
Gôndi, the standard form of Gond. Books in this dialect
are, as a rule, printed in the Devanagari character.

The Malto. The Rajmahali Hills are a range of hills in

Bengal, India, on the south and west of the Ganges, in the
angle where this river turns to the south-east. The tribes
inhabiting the region are the Santals, a Kolarian people, and
the Paharias, i.e., the mountaineers. They call themselves
Mâler ("the people"). Their Dravidian language is called
Malto, i.e., the tongue of the people. It is spoken by some
sixty thousand people. The Pahârias live on the top of the
hills, the Santals in the intervening valleys.

A devoted young missionary, the Rev. Thomas Christian,

of the S.P.G., attempted during the years 1824-27 to reach
the Rajmahal tribes from Bhagalpur, Bengal. In 1825-20 he
reduced their language to writing, and produced a
vocabulary and a translation of the Gospel of St. Matthew
into Malto or Paharee. His early death, in 1827, brought all
efforts to a standstill.
The Mission was taken up again by the C.M.S. in 1850. It
was in that year that the Rev. Ernst Droese was sent to
Bhagalpur. He had originally come to India in 1842 as a
member of the Berlin Mission Society, but had lately been
engaged by the C.M.S., and was ordained by Bishop Daniel
Wilson, of Calcutta. He remained at Bhagalpur for thirty-
six years; with but one furlough. He then retired to
Mussoorie, and died there in 1891, after almost half a
century of active service. He had opened and conducted
schools for both Paharias and Santals. He made Malto his
special study, and translated into this language the Gospel
of St. Luke and the Gospel of St. John, which were
published by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1881
and 1882, respectively. Later on followed the remaining
two Gospel narratives (1887) and a version of the Psalms
(1889). It is quite probable that the Malto version of the
Book of Common Prayer entitled:

* Kalisiyaki | Sumbrarpo ketabe | athena | Sagr Griffiths 103:1

Bacheri lagki Sumbrar Pawriki | Sakramenteki |
Ante | Kalisiyaki ado chalare ante Dastureki |
pathi kódith | England ante Ayrlandeke tunyrp
Kalisiyaki dastur chow, | printed by the Secundra
Orphanage Press at Agra in 1886.

(200 pages, large 8vo) is the work of this sturdy and steady
German missionary, who is the translator of practically all
the portions of the Bible so far translated into Malto. The
Malta edition of the Liturgy contains neither the Psalter nor
the Ordinal.

CHAPTER XXXIV

THE KOLARIAN GROUP OF TRANSLATIONS

THE Kols[1] are said to comprise two distinct aboriginal

races-the Mundas and the Uraons. They constitute some
two-thirds of the population of the province of Chhota
Nagpur, Bengal Presidency. At the same time they are the
[1] We are indebted to Sir George
Campbell (1824-92), the Indian
administrator and author, for the
word “Kolarian “ as the name of a
least numerous of the linguistic families of India. class of non-Aryans in Central
India who are not Dravidians. The
term “Munda” for the same people
“Kol” or “Cole” was originally an “epithet of abuse applied was coined by Friedrich Max
by the Brahminical race to the aborigines of the country Müller.
who opposed their settlement.” Strictly speaking, the
Uraons, thus called by their Aryan-tongued neighbours,
they calling themselves Kurukh, are Dravidian. The word
“Kol” is a generic term embracing the three principal
Rolarian tribes of the province, viz., the Munda Kols of
Chhota Nagpur proper, the Larka or fighting Kols of
Singbhum district, commonly calls Hos, and the Bhumij
Kols of Mambhum district. According to the last census
they number approximately 460,000, 372,000 and 111,000,
respectively.

The Kolarian or Munda race is assumed by many as the

original inhabitant of India, belonging to the earliest
stratum of the Dravidian family. It is older than the present
Dravidian population, and is believed to have been
subjugated by them when the latter invaded their country.
’The Dravidians, in turn, were subdued by the Aryan race
from Central Asia. The bulk of the Dravidians were pressed
southward. The remnants of the old Kolarians, and also
certain Dravidian tribes, retired into the hill districts and
jungles of Central India and Western Bengal. They
constitute the non-Aryan hill tribes of to-day.

Mundari is spoken in the districts of Ranchi, Palamau,

Sambalpur, etc. It has been reduced to writing by
missionaries with the use of the roman letters. As a rule,
however, books, such as Bibles and liturgies are printed in
the Devanagari character.

In 1891 the S.P.C.K. published the Mundari Book of Griffiths 116:2

Common Prayer, translated by J. C. Whitley[2] and native
clergy of Chhota Nagpur. (1), 160 pages. Large 8vo. It was [2] A biographical notice of
Bishop Whitley is given in Chap.
printed at Ranchi, and contains the Morning and Evening XXVII, “Hindi Translations.”
Prayer, the Litany, the Collects, and the Offices for Holy
Communion, Baptism! Churching of Women, Burial
Service, and a collection of Psalm;. A portion of the
Morning and Evening Prayer had been in use for some time
before 1891. Whitley was also the author of A Primer [in
Mundārī], for the assistance of missionaries and others.
This was published by the Indian Government in 1873.
One of Whitley’s native assistants, the Rev. Prabhusay
Bodra, stationed at Nagpur since 1884, and one of his
helpers in the translation of the Liturgy, translated also the
Catechism into Mundari, published in lithograph script at
Ranchi.

The latest edition of the Liturgy was put out in Ranchi in Griffiths 116:3
1909. Its title reads:

* Mundarī Binti Puthī | Neāre | Englikana

Kalīsiyāreah Thaharāvaakana Bintī | Puthīete |
Tarālephā Hodokajīre Olaakanī | 1909, Içvī. |
[The Book of Common Prayer in Mundari.]
Ranchi: Printed at the G. E. L. Mission Press, |
and published by the S.P.G. Mission, Ranchi.

(1), 181 pages, royal 8vo. Printed in long lines. Reverse of

title-page blank.

For the services of the Larka Kols, called also the devil-
worshipping Kols and Hos, portions of the Prayer Book
were translated by their missionary, the Rev. F. Krüger not listed by Griffiths
{Calcutta, 1876). Friedrich Krüger was one of the ex-
German Lutheran missionaries sent out in 1845 by the
Berlin Lutheran Missionary Society. They joined the S.P.G.
in 1869, and were ordained by Bishop Milman, of Calcutta,
April 17, 1869. Krüger was stationed at Chaibasa, one of
the hottest places in India, from 1875 until 1886. He went
home on sick leave from 1887 until 1889. After his return
he continued to work at Ranchi until 1892, when he was
pensioned by the S.P.G., in whose service he had laboured
for so many years. He was probably the last of that small
band of German S.P.G. missionaries to retire from the work
at Chhota Nagpur[3].

A later translation was made by the Rev. Daud Singh, [3] Krüger’s German brethren
assisted by the Rev. Abraham Bodra. It was printed in were the Rev. Friedrich Batsch,
who had laboured in the same field
1902, and is entirely in Devanagari, excepting the imprint, for twenty-three years and was
which reads: Chaibasa, Chhota Nagpur. | Anglican Mission /pensioned in 1886. He died in
in connection with the Society for | the Promotion of the 1907. Further, the Rev. Friedrich
Gospel. | 1902. Above this imprint is the Ho title, reading, Bolm, pensioned in 1888, died in
1911; the Rev. Heinrich Batsch,
died at Cottbus, October 29, 1898,
in transliteration: and Mr. A. Herzog, a layman, who
died February 7, 1909.
* Ho | Sadhārana Binatī Pothī | Iñgalenda
Griffiths 53:1
Eklesiyāreā Sādhārana | Binatī Pothīete Tarāmarā
Ho | Kajīre Tarjumākanā.

Reverse of title-page reads Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press,

1902. (2), 456 pages, 12mo.

William Luther Daud Singh was ordained deacon in 1869,

and priest in 1872, the first Indian priest in Chhota Nagpur.
He was pastor at Chaibasa from 1869 on. The bishop of
Calcutta appointed him in 1904 as his commissary, thereby
giving public expression of the universal high respect
entertained for him by the clergy of the diocese. He was
one of the most remarkable native Christians ever admitted
to Holy Orders, and served the S.P.G. from the very
beginning of their mission in Chhota Nagpur. He died, on
Whit Sunday of 1909, at Hazaribagh[4]. — Bodra was
pastor at Ranchi from 1880 to 1889, and since then in like [4] See, further, Mission Field,
office at Kathbari, diocese of Chhota Nagpur . October, 1909.

The Santals[5] and the Pahârias are the hill tribes of the·
Rajmahali hills. The two tribes are totally different, the one
being Kolarian, the other Dravidian. The Santals are the
most numerous aboriginal tribe in Bengal. Their language,
the Santilli is spoken by about 1,800,000 people. They
lived originally further south; but in 1832 the Government
encouraged them, as they were increasing rapidly, to· settle
in the valleys and plains between the Râjmahâli Hills. The
Santal villages alternate with those of the Pahârias .
The great missionary among the Santals was the Rev.
Edward Lavallin Puxley, the founder of the C.M.S. Santal
Mission. He arrived in 1859, reduced the Santālī to writing,
and translated into that language the Gospel according to
St. Matthew, the Psalms and portions of the Prayer Book.
Fever drove him back to England; whence he soon returned
for a short time until 1866, when ill-health forced him to,
retire altogether. It is rather surprising that no attempt since them Sontars, a designation which
then has been made by the C.M.S. missionaries among the
Santals to prepare a translation of the Liturgy or of portions
thereof, especially in view of the fact that great progress
has been made by the Missionary Societies working among
[5] According to a tradition, told
by Bradley-Birt in The Story of an
Indian Upland (1905), p. 156, the
designation for the tribe is thus
accounted for; “Travelling again in
a south-westerly direction they
came to Saont, which, according to
them, marks an important stage in
their history, since it was here that
they first acquired the name of
Santals — a designation, however,
they never use, ’Hor’ (a man)
being the usual name by which a
Santal calls himself. . . . No other
derivation of the word Santal has
been suggested.” On p. 157 Mr.
Birt states that as early as 1818
Mr. Sutherland in a report calls
lends support to the derivation of
the name.
Griffiths 151:1-4
them. For, whereas some thirty years ago the Santal
Christians numbered scarcely more than three hundred,
they now number more than fifty thousand all told.

CHAPTER XXXV

THE SINHALESE PRAYER BOOK

THE island of Ceylon has been an English Crown Colony Griffiths calls this language
since 1798, ruled by a governor. Its area amounts to about Sinhala.
five-sixths of that of Ireland. Its inhabitants, the Sinhalese,
are said to have immigrated from Oude, on the mainland of
India, in 543 B.C., driving into the eastern jungles the
ancestors of the modern Veddahs, a small tribe of primitive
hunters. In A.D. 838 the Tamils, who had frequently
invaded the island, established a kingdom in Jaffna. The
Portuguese, under Francisco de Almeida, first visited
Ceylon in 1585, and three years later acquired possession
of it. Their territory passed into the hands of the Dutch in
1658, who in turn gave way to the East India Company in
1796. Two years later the island became a Crown Colony.
In 1815 the Kandyan, or Highlanders’, kingdom, the last
vestige of native rule in Ceylon, fell into English
possession.

The two principal races of the island, the Sinhalese and the
Tamil, differ widely from each other, not only in language
and religion, but in vigour, intelligence and personal
characteristics, the Tamil in Northern Ceylon and originally
Hindus, being far superior to the Sinhalese, inhabiting the
southern and western part of the island, and being followers
of Buddha. The Sinhali belongs to the Indic branch of the
Aryan family of languages. It is spoken by almost 70 per
cent. of the population; nearly allied to Pali, and derived
from a Prakrit of Western Asia. It contains, however, a
strong infusion of Tamil vocables.

The Christian element of Ceylon numbers about 350,000,

out of a total of 3,500,000 inhabitants. Of these some
180,000 are Sinhalese, the rest are Tamils, inhabitants or
immigrants from India.

In 1817 four missionaries were sent out to Ceylon by the

C.M.S. They were Samuel Lambrick, Robert Mayor,
Benjamin Ward and Joseph Knight. The last named died in
Ceylon, 1840. The others returned to England after years of
service.

When Lambrick went out to Ceylon he was a man in

middle life. He had been a tutor at Eton and was probably
the most mature person yet engaged by the society. All four
had been ordained for colonial work by Bishop Ryder, of
Gloucester.

In 1820, two years after their arrival in 1818, the S.P.C.K.

published a translation of the Liturgy, together with the
Psalter or Psalms of David, into Sinhalese, Colombo: Griffiths 157:1
Wesleyan Mission Press, 1820. 278, 137, 228 pages. 4to.
Whether our four missionaries had part in this editio
princeps of the Sinhalese version cannot be shown. It is
quite improbable, owing to the fact that the same press the
year before — 1819 — had printed: Prayers selected from
the Liturgy of the Church of England, and translated into
Singhalese for the use of the Wesleyan Mission Native Free
Schools in Ceylon, by Benjamin Clough, of the Wesleyan
Mission Society. The second edition, 15 pages, 8vo. It
consisted of the Order for Morning Prayer. Instructions for
children are added in English.

Soon a revision was begun, in which Lambrick was deeply

interested. The Liturgy as well as the Old and .New
Testament were to be translated into a style of language
which would make these books available for the purposes
of education and capable of being used in the schools and
public services of the Mission. With the sanction of the
Griffiths 157:2 (1827, said to be
C.M.S. the missionaries prepared and printed, at their
untraced)
expense and at their own press in Cotta, a suburb of
Colombo, a new version of the Bible and of the Book of Griffiths 157:3 (1831)
Common Prayer in “familiar Singhalese.” The first edition
of the Prayer Book in the Cotta style was printed in 1827.
This having been exhausted in a few years, a second and
revised edition was printed in 1831. The second edition
was the joint work of Lambrick and James Selkirk, who
was missionary in Ceylon from 1826 until his return to
England in 1840. This edition, as well as its predecessor
and successors, has an English title-page (reverse blank)
and a Sinhalese (reverse blank). The former reads: * The
Book of Common Prayer, and administration of the
Sacraments. . . Translated into Singhalese by the Rev. S.
Lambrick and the Rev. J. Selkirk, Church missionaries.
Ceylon: Printed at the Cotta Church Mission Press. W.
Ridsdale, Typ., 1831. (22), 193, 8r pages, large 8vo.
Printed in two columns to the page. Aside from the English
title, the book is entirely printed in the Sinhalese character.

When the second edition had been exhausted, the text

underwent a thorough revision in 1837 and 1839 at the Griffiths 157:4 (1843, “possibly
re-issue of a 3rd ed. dated
hands of Selkirk, who since the departure of Lambrick to 1839”)
England in 1835 had undertaken the work of revisions.
This third edition appeared in 1839. As late as 1889 the Griffiths 157:7 (1889)
C.M.S., Colombo, issued a revised edition of the same
(xviii, 410 pages, 8vo). It includes the Psalter or Psalms of
David.

To the Rev. S. W. Dias, a Government chaplain and

superintendent of S.P.G. work at Demetagode, Colombo
diocese, the Church became indebted in 1869 for a Griffiths 157:6 (1866, reissued
translation of the Liturgy into Sinhalese, a work which the 1869, 1873, 1881, 1883)
bishop of Colombo, Piers Calveley Claughton, stated, in
1869, had been “performed with remarkable success,”
although, owing to circumstances, his translation was not at
that time generally adopted in Ceylon.

An entirely new translation was made a few years ago. The

report of the S.P.G., 1908, page 138, states that:

“The Singhalese Prayer book has been at last retranslated and revised.
It has also been submitted to the Episcopal Synod of the Province, and
has been sanctioned. The new version, therefore, has now come into
use; and it is hoped that it will replace the translations which have been
in vogue hitherto.”