WRITTEN BY LONDON SWAMINATHAN
Post No. 13,691
Date uploaded in London – 20 September 2024
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“Your task is to spread Christianity in India and not Hinduism in Europe” – Christian Missionary Head quarters wrote back to ZIEGENBALG.
BARTHOLOMAEUS ZIEGENBALG (1682-1719 ) was a German Tamil scholar who translated many Tamil books in to German. He lived only 36 years and he achieved a lot within that short life span. Had he lived like Rev G U Pope, he would have translated all Tevaram and Divya Prabandham verses in German language. He praised all that was Hindu. It is all in his letters and articles in German.
Here is his life story:
BARTHOLOMAEUS ZIEGENBALG was the first PROTESTANT missionary to come to India. He was born on 10-7-1682 in Pulsnitz, Saxony. His father was a wealthy grain merchant and so he had good education. He joined University of HALLE but could not continue his education because of health issues. He worked as a private tutor.
King Frederick IV of Denmark and Norway wished that missionaries were sent to Tharangampadi (Tranqebar) in Tamil Nadu, then a military colony leased to the DANISH EAST INDIA COMPANY by the Raja of Thanjavur. When ZIEGENBALG was recommended, he took a seven month long voyage and reached India. On arrival at Tharangampadi (Tranquebar) he met with bitter opposition from the colonial authorities. Ziegenbalg was imprisoned for four months in 1798/09. After his release he worked very hard and founded an orphanage and a school. He also established a Tamil Printing Press. He studied Portuguese and Tamil. He collected materials for a Tamil dictionary and wrote a grammar book in Latin named GRAMMATICA DAMULICA in 1716.
He also studied the living religion, customs and manners of the people of South India. The results of his research are laid down in several manuscripts, which Ziegenbalg sent to Germany for publication.
He wrote in a letter that the more he acquainted with the teaching of the Hindus, the more he was impressed by them. He felt the Hindu books might be studied with as much profit as Aristotles. The mission authorities however felt that it was “ Ziegenbalg’s task is to propagate Christianity in India and not Hinduism in Europe”.
The Christians never published his writings. Only later generations discovered the eminent scholarly value of these books.
Ziegenbalg’s main work GENEALOGIE DER MALABARISCHEN GOETTER= GENEALOGY OF SOUTH INDIAN GODS: A MANUAL OF THE MYTHOLOGY AND RELIGION OF THE PEOPLE OF SOUTHERN INDIA was printed in madras in 1867.
Another work AUSFUEHELICHE BESCHREIBUNG DES MALABARISCHEN HEIDENTUMS = COMPLETE DESCRIPTION OF MALABAR HEATHENDOM was published only in 1926 by the Dutch scholar W. CALAND
The first part of the book unfolds the theological and philosophical principles contained in tamil writings. The second part describes Hindu customs and manners. It contains observations on chronology, caste, ritual in eating, agriculture, medicine, chemistry and alchemy.
Some of Ziegenbalg’s smaller writings Neethi Venba, Kondrai Venthan and Ulaka Neethi (all Tamil books) are in his KLEINERE SCHRIFTEN= MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS edited by W. Caland in 1930.
A large amount of Indological data are also included in his letters, reports and accounts, available in Complete Reports of the Royal Danish Missionaries in India. Another booklet of his, the first product of the Tamil Press in Tranquebar, Malabar Heathendom ,was thought to have been lost, until it was rediscovered in 1965.
Though unnoticed by his contemporaries, Ziegenbalg has won a place among the outstanding scholars of Hindu religion. He suffered from nervous disorders since his childhood and was only 36 years old when he died at Tranquebar on 2-2-1719.
–subham—
Tags, German, Tamil Scholar, Tranquebar, Malabar Heathendom, Ziegenbalg, impressed by Hinduism, Tamil Grammar, Hindu customs, Aristotle.
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