The Indo-Danish Cultural Encounter with Special Reference to Print in the Eigteenth Century

Project by Dr. A. R. Venkatachalapathy, Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai

• The project is part of Galathea3 and financed by the Bikuben Foundation 
  

The Tamil language is not only the first Indian language but also the first non-European language to see print. While the first Tamil books were printed on the West Coast by the Portuguese the real story of print in India with significant social and cultural impact begins with the setting up of the printing press in Tranquebar by the Lutheran missionaries in the first decade of the eighteenth century. By the first century of printing at Tranquebar the number of Tamil books printed neared three hundred – a figure much ahead of other prominent Indian languages such as Persian and Bengali. In terms of content and quality, the first printed Tamil grammars and dictionaries issued from the Danish press in Tranquebar constitute landmarks in the modern European understanding of Eastern cultures. But the most phenomenal achievement of Tranquebar was the first full translation of the Bible in any Indian language. There were two prominent figures in this fascinating cross-cultural project: Bartholomaus Ziegenbalg and J. Fabricius. Until the centres of printing moved further north on the East coast towards Pondicherry, Madras and Serampore, Tranquebar truly dominated the printing scene in eighteenth century.

Unfortunately, there is no adequate treatment of this cross-cultural encounter between indigenous Tamil society and Denmark as mediated and facilitated by the new technology of print. Existing literature is limited to survey chapters which highlight the Danish contribution in histories of print and in histories of missionary Christianity. Further the resources for such a study have also not been fully explored. In order to redress this lacuna project envisages the following.

• A comprehensive annotated bibliography of Tamil imprints produced at Tranquebar
• An analysis of the impact of these Tamil works produced by the Danish missionaries on indigenous literary practices, especially on the creation of a modern prose, modern notions of translation
• A culturalist understanding of classification of indigenous knowledge in terms of western categories as evidenced by the grammars and dictionaries

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