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

A. R. Venkatachalapathy

Professor
Madras Institute of Development Studies
79, Second Main Road, Gandhinagar,
Adyar, Chennai - 600 020
Tamil Nadu, INDIA.

E-mail: chalapathy@mids.ac.in 

Tel: 0091�44�24412589 / 24419771 Extn:
Fax: 0091 � 44 � 24910872

Educational Qualification:

B Com., University of Madras, Chennai, 1987
M A (History), Madurai �Kamaraj University, 1989
Ph D (History), Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 1995

Areas of Research:

Social History, Cultural History, Intellectual History, Literary Historiography, Social and Cultural Change.

Visiting Faculty, Fellowships and Awards:

Work Experience:

Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai (from June 2001)

Department of Indian History, University of Madras, Chennai (from December 2000 - May 2001)

Department of History, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli, April 1995- December 2000 

Selected Publications

Books (English)

2006                 In Those Days There Was No Coffee: Writings in Cultural History (New Perspectives on Indian Pasts, Series Editor: Saurabh Dube), Yoda Press, New Delhi.

2006                 (ed.) Chennai, Not Madras: Perspectives on the City, Marg, Mumbai.

2003                 (trans.) Sundara Ramaswamy, J.J.: Some Jottings, Katha, New Delhi.

Books (Tamil)
2005                 (trans.) Thuyarmiku Varikalai Indriravu Nan Ezhutalam (Tamil Translation of Pablo Neruda), Kalachuvadu Pathippagam, Nagercoil.

2004                 (ed.), Bharatiyin Vijaya Katturaigal, Kalachuvadu Pathippagam, Nagercoil.

2004                 Mucchanthi Ilakkiyam (Popular Literature in Colonial Tamilnadu), Nagercoil.

2004                 Mullai: Oar Arimugam, Mullai Pathippagam, Chennai.

2003                 (ed.), A.K.Chettiar, Annal Adichuvattil (The making of the documentary, Mahatma Gandhi), Kalachuvadu Pathippagam, Nagercoil.

2002b               Novelum Vasippum: Oru Varalattru Parvai (Early Novels and Reading Practices: A Historical View), Nagercoil (second edition 2003).

2002a               (ed.) Pudumaippithan Katturaigal (second volume of chronological and variorum edition of the complete works of Pudumaippithan), Nagercoil (second edition 2003).

2000b               Andha Kalathil Kappi Illai Muthalana Aaivu Katturaigal (collection of research papers on Tamil cultural history), Nagercoil (second edition 2001).

2000a               (ed.) Pudumaippithan Kathaigal (first volume of chronological and variorum edition of the complete works of Pudumaippithan), Nagercoil (third revised edition 2002).

Articles

2006                 Madras Manade: How Chennai remained with Tamilnadu, in A.R.Venkatachalapathy (ed.), Chennai, Not Madras: Perspectives on the City, Marg, Mumbai.

2005d               Andha Kalathil Kapi Illai: Tamilagathe Kapiyude Samskariga Charithiram, Pachakuthira, August (Malayalam translation of 2002c)

2005c               Enna Prayocanam: Constructing the Canon in Colonial Tamilnadu. Indian Economic and Social History Review, 42(4), October-December, special number on Language, Genre and Historical Imagination in South India.

2005b               Review symposium: Literary Cultures in History, Indian Economic and Social History Review, 42(3)

2005a               Drinking Coffee: Contending with Modernity in Late Colonial Tamilnadu in Satish Poduval (ed.), Re-figuring Culture: History, Theory and the Aesthetic in Contemporary India, Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi.

2004c               Triumph of Tobacco: The Tamil Experience, in Jean-Luc Chevillard, Eva Wilden (eds.), South-Indian Horizons: Felicitation Volume for Francois Gros, Institut Francais de Pondichery & Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient, Pondicherry.

2004b               In Those Days There was no Coffee: Coffee-Drinking and Middle-Class Culture in Late Colonial Tamilnadu, in Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Land, Politics and Trade in South Asia, Oxford University Press (reprint of 2002c).

2004a               Street Smart in Chennai: The City in Popular Imagination, in C.S. Lakshmi (ed.), The Unhurried City: Writings on Madras, Penguin.

2003c               Caricaturing the Political: A Brief History of the Cartoon in Tamil Journalism, Art India, 8(4), Quarter 4.

2003b               In Print, On the Net: Tamil Literary Canon(s) in the Colonial and Post Colonial Worlds, in Sumit Gupta, Tapan Basu (eds.), Globalisation, Conflict and Identity, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi.

2002c               In Those Days There was no Coffee: Coffee-Drinking and Middle-Class Culture in Late Colonial Tamilnadu, Indian Economic and Social History Review, 39(2-3), Dharma Kumar Memorial Volume.

2002b               Coining Words: Politics and Language in Late Colonial Tamilnadu in Vasant Kaiwar & Sucheta Mazumdar (eds.), Antinomies of Modernity: Essays on Race, Orient, Nation, Duke University Press

2002a               Fiction and the Tamil Reading Public, in Meenakshi Mukherjee (ed.), Early Novels in India, Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi.

Current Research Work:

• Studies in the social history of the Dravidian movement.

• The making of middle-class culture in colonial Tamilnadu.

• Tamilnadu: Academic Perspectives from Without

• A multi-volume biography of and documentation on V.O.Chidambaram Pillai (1872-1936).

• Editing the collected works of Pudumaippithan (thus far three volumes published; three more are under preparation).