Indian Antiquary Vol 56

SR No.: 032548
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1986
Total Pages: 286
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 13 MB

Page 13

JANUARY, 1927 ] DRAVIDIAN LINGUISTIO STUDIES IN THE COMPANY'S DAYS
Company, to whom the copyright was assigned. In this compilation the author was assisted by the College Telugu Master, K. Gurumurthy Sastri, to whom reference has been already made.46
Besides Messrs. McKerrell, Dalziell, Campbell and Morris, we learn from a consultation 47 that Mr. Boileau asked the help of a Telugu teacher in the completion of his Telugu Dictionary. Both Dalziell's Dictionary and W. Brown's Grammar 48 were refused assistance. Shortly afterwards, we read of the handsome donation made by Lieutenant Sinclair of certain Portuguese and Singalese manuscripts to the Library of the College. What use these were of to the Madras scholars, we do not know. From a despatch of the Court of Directors we learn that instructions were given respecting the purchase of W. Brown's Gentoo (Telugu) Vocabulary; Campbell's Telugu Dictionary; Babington's Tamil work; Rottler's Translation of the Liturgy; Morris's Telugu work ; MoKerrell's Karnataka Grammar and other books. In continuation of their policy of patronising native authors, the Governor and Council 60 sanction. od a reward to Thandavaraya Vadhiar and authorised the printing of Amara Kosa and three other works in Tamil. The College Board was further asked to report on certain of the Mackenzie Manuscripts61; and the Tamil translation (perhaps a condensed account) of The Arabian Nights Stories, made by one Gnana-Mudaly, was helped by Government purchasing & certain number of copies.52 Mr. Charles Philip Brown, the well-known Telugu soholar, now began to rise into prominence. He had already translated the verses of Vamana, & rustic epigrammatic poet; and in 1827 he published at the request of Mr. Clark, a member of the College Board, An Analysis of Telugu Prosody, adding explanations of the Sanskrit system. Several books tendered by Mr. Brown were purchased by Government, who recommended to the Directors the payment of 1,000 pagodas to him for the original of his treatise on Prosody. A few years later Government soquired the copyrights of the Dictionaries of Morris and Reeve on behalf of the Company. To revise the Tamil Dictionary about to be published by the Rev. Dr. Rottler, Government deputed Mr. Harkness, assisted by two Munshis, and later Mr. A. Robertson.63 The avidity for learning displayed by Major-General Sir John Malcolm, whose sphere of activity lay mainly in the west of India, is well illustrated in a Government consultation64 defraying the expenses incurred by Muttugwami Pillai in preparing a copy of Beschi's Tamil poem Tembavani, which was presented to Sir John.
The continued assistance rendered by the College Board to Mr. Rottler and his succes. sor, Mr. Taylor, in the compilation of the former's Tamil-English Dictionary 66 is seen in the association of T. Venkatachala Mudali, a certificated teacher of the College, with the work of revision. This work refers nearly all words to their roots or primitives; the synonyms were largely drawn from the Sadur Agaradi; while Beschi's manuscript Dictionary of the Common Dialect and another manuscript dictionary, Tamil and French, by Du Bourges seem to have been made use of to some extent 66, as well as Fabricius' Tamil and English Dictionary. In 1851, one Captain Ouchterlony solicited patronage for his Tamil-English Lexicon. In 1853
46 A dictionary English and Teloogoo, by J. C. Morris, F. R. 8. (Madras, 1835)- Introductory Notice - Pub. Cons., 27th February 1827.
47 Dated 24th August 1821.
48 This was William Brown (Coochi) who died in 1837. "In 1818 be printed a poor vocabulary and a poorer Grammar. I recollect that he assured me the language, which he called Gentoo, possessed no litora. ture," p. xiii-Literary Life of O. P. Brown ; An English and Telugu Dictionary (2nd Edition).
19 Embodied in Public Consultation, 7th October 1823. 60 Consultation, 3rd May 1825. 51 Pub. Cons., dated 16th May 1826.
53 Ibid., dated 7th Nov. 1826. 63 Proceedings of Government in the Public Department, Cons, of 23rd Dec. 1828 ; and Cons. of 20th January 1832.
54 Pub. Cons., 28th June 1831.
66 A Dictionary of the Tamil and English Languages, by the Rev. J. P. Rottlor, vol. I, part I (Madras, 1834), vol. I, part II (Madre, 1836-37) : part III (Revised by W. Taylor and T. Vonkatachala Mudali1839): Part IV (Madras, 1841).
66 Pages iv and v of Proface to Rottler's Dictionary, part IV (1847).