State allots Rs. 20 lakh to Tamil University

[dwarakesh]

THANJAVUR: The State government has allotted Rs. 20 lakh to Tamil University to convert all the rare Tamil books available into e-text and make them available to research scholars as e-data said M. Rajendran, Vice-chancellor, Tamil University here on Tuesday.

Speaking at the seminar on the contribution of Christian Missionaries to Tamil language organised by the Department of Tamil Studies, Dr. Rajendran said that there was no exact data on the number of Tamil books published so far ever since the first print was done in the 1578 A.D.

But in 1867 a catalogue was brought out by John Mardu, a Christian Missionary which put the number of books published till 1867 A.D. as 1755. The subjects included religion which took the maximum of 1218, law, philosophy, science, poems, drama, prose, arts, history, geography etc. It was also mentioned then that there were nine Newspapers and 17 journals and there were 34 books meant for teaching Tamil to European scholars. Thus cataloguing was also introduced by Christian missionaries.

Rev. Fr. Amuthan Adigal, state secretary of Thiruvarut Peravai, in his lecture on the contribution of Chrisitan Missionaries from foreign countries to Tamil, said that due to necessity, contribution to Tamil by Christian Missionaries started with Translation works. Christian Missionary Annrique Annriques published four books in 1578 A.D. It was Father Annriques who sowed the seeds for translation. Veerama Munivar translated Thirukural into Latin. Ellis, a British Government official classified the Dravidian languages family. Caldwel worked on it.

Ellis translated the "Arathupal" of Thirukural into English. G. U. Pope translated Thirukural, Thiruvasagam, Naladiyar, Punaranuru and Manimegalai. "Rev. Frs. Annriques, Veerama Manivar and G. U. Pope contributed to Tamil by way of their translation of the books in Tamil into Latin and English. There were other missionaries who translated Tamil works into German and French," Amuthan Adigal said.

With respect to Tamil prose, contribution of Robelso De Nobili, an Italian missionary who lived in Maduraiin 1606-1656 was noteworthy. He published 20 books in Tamil. He also published books in Telugu and Sanskrit. He was also the person who proved that they need not be considered foreigners but were those who accepted Indian culture and lived as Indians. He called himself "Thathuva Bothagar" and wore Khadi. He took vegetarian food, Amuthan Adigal informed. It was Zeigen balg who published Tamil grammar book in 1915 from Tharangampadi. With respect to dictionaries, though the Sathur Agarathi of Veerama Munivar stands out, though there were other works done prior to his, Amuthan Adigal said.

A documentary on the contribution of Christian Missionaries to Tamil titled "Marai Thamizh" was screened. The documentary was prepared by T. Vetri Selvan, Co-ordinator of the seminar.

Amuthan Adigal presented a CD to the Vice-Chancellor containing details of two first Tamil books published.