Indian Antiquary Vol 56

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 12

6
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ JANUARY, 1927
purchased by Government from Mr. Murdoch) into the form of good serviceable dictionaries. In the course of the same year the College Board was asked by Government to report on the Tamil Translation of the English Liturgy36 prepared by the Rev. Mr. Rottler, promising him assistance if the report should be favourable. Likewise the Board was required to report on Babington's Tamil Translation of Beschi's Grammar of Shen Tamil (Higher Dialect).37 The Board declared that Rottler's work was of limited utility, the translation being too stiff-and in some places not conveying the plain meaning. It declared itself satisfied with the Telugu grammar prepared by Mr. A. D. Campbell and requested Government to bring it to the favourable notice of the Court of Directors, soliciting financial assistance38. The book was published in 1816 and saw its third edition as late as 1849.39 In the preparation of the Grammar, Mr. Campbell was assisted by the noted scholar F. W. Ellis and also by the learned Telugu instructor, Udayagiri Venkatanarayana Iyah, who was Head English Master at the College and later became Interpreter to the Supreme Court, and also by Pattabhirama Sastri, Head Sanskrit and Telugu Master at the College. The latter gentleman compiled a Telugu Dhâtumála (List of Roots). It was Campbell who first pointed out the radical and intimate connection that exists between Telugu and the other South Indian vernaculars.
Correspondence was long carried on between Government and the Board on the questions of McKerrell's Karnataka Grammar and Telugu Dictionary and of Whish's Malayalam Grammar and Dictionary.40 In 1816 Mr. Campbell made a further proposal to compile a Telugu Dictionary, which he asked to be referred to the Court of Directors.41 Shortly afterwards Government asked for payment of charges for the collection of books and manuscripts purchased by the College Board from Colonel Colin Mackenzie and a native assistant of his.42
One Mr. J. Dalziell supplied to the Board the specimen of a Telugu Dictionary that he proposed to complete, and this offer, as well as another made by him to compile a Telugu and English Dictionary, were both disposed of. The Telugu Grammar published by Mr. W. Brown was not favourably reported on at first and Government refused to purchase copies of it.43 In 1819 Government ordered, on the favourable report of the College Board, to be transmitted to England copies of The Tales of Vikramanka in Telugu, compiled by K. Gurumurthy, a master in the College. It also ordered the printing and distribution of an almanac prepared by the native astronomer of the College, as well as the second edition of Campbell's Telugu Grammar. In the following year the proposal that Mr. Campbell should compile a Telugu Dictionary took definite shape; and Government permitted him 44 to take two native assistants from the College to Bellary, to help him in the preparation of his Dictionary. Again, on the recommendation of the College Board, Government passed orders that" Mr. Morris's elementary work in the Telugu language be printed and published under its auspices and the author be sufficiently remunerated.46 The English and Telugu Dictionary, which Mr. Morris published in 1835, was compiled under the auspices of the College Board and was at their recommendation purchased by Government on behalf of the Hon'ble the
36 Public Consultations of 20th January.
37 Ibid., 10th March 1815, p. 672 of Record in the Record Office.
38 Ibid., 22nd Dec., pp. 3358 and 3536 of volumes in the Record Office.
It was
39 The work was entitled, A Grammar of the Teloogoo Language commonly termed the Gentoo. however as a tolerably correct treatise, being the translation of an original crabbed work.
40 Public Consultations, 10th March, p. 672, 26th April and 8th July (1815), pp. 672, 1116, 1853, of Record
Office volumes.
41 Ibid., 1st of June 1816 (Dispatch Nos. 55 and 56 in the Records).
42 Ibid., 14th of August 1816 (Dispatch. Nos. 20 and 21).
43 Ibid., 15th April 1817 (Dispatch Nos. 44 and 45).
44 Ibid., 23rd February 1820 (Dispatch Nos. 232-5).
45 Ibid., 1820, 18th July (Dispatch Nos. 12 and 13); 1st August (Dispatch Nos. 11 and 12); 20th October (Dispatch Nos. 11 and 12).