PART THE FOURTH

THE BRITISH EMPIRE IN INDIA
AND THE FAR EAST

CHAPTER XXVI

INTRODUCTORY

“The first non-Roman Mission to India (since the Reformation) — viz., that begun by the Danish Lutherans Ziegenbalgh and Plutscho. at Tranquebar in 1706 — originated from the example of the S.P.G. in America. Its object at the outset was promoted by the Society, and it was largely assisted by the S.P.C.K., to whose care many of the stations were afterwards transferred. Independently of this, the S.P.C.K. began a Mission of its own in Madras^[1] in 1798. This, with the adopted Missions and others subsequently opened by the S.P.C.K. in Southern India, was carried on for nearly 100 years by German Lutheran missionaries^[2].
 

“As a result of the ‘due settlement of the Episcopal authority in India’ by the foundation of the bishopric of Calcutta in 1814, the S.P.G. extended its operations to that country by undertaking, in 1818, the establishment of Bishop’s College, near Calcutta. Its first two missionaries (the Rev. Dr. W. H. Mill and Mr. J. H. Alt)^[3]. arrived in February, 1821, and the college, opened in 1824, became the centre of active missionary operations in Bengal.

“The transfer of the S.P.C.K. Missions in Southern India to the S.P.G. in 1825 put an end to the anomaly of employing Lutheran, instead of Anglican missionaries, ‘the invariable practice’ of the S.P.G. being to employ only ‘episcopally ordained missionaries.’ The Missions at the time of the transfer embraced 8,352 Christians under the care of six missionaries.

“The fields since occupied by the S.P.G. in Asia haye been: Bombay Presidency in 1830, the North-Western Provinces 1833, the Central Provinces 1846, Assam 1851, the Punjab 1854, Burma 1859, Cashmere 1866, Ajmere 188r, Ceylon 1840, Borneo 1848, the Straits Settlements 1856, China 1863, Japan 1873, Corea 1889, Manchuria 1892, and Western Asia, temporarily, in 1842”^[4].

NOT only the S.P.G., but almost all missionary societies of many countries, of Europe and America, are represented in Asia:

“and every variety of missionary work is going on-bazaar preaching, village itineration, lectures and conversations, zenana visiting, vernacular schools, highschools and colleges, orphanages and boarding-schools, hospitals and dispensaries. We find C.M.S. and other missionary societies’ men and women engaged in all these fields and activities”^[5].

India, including Burma, has a total area of 1,766,597 square miles and a population (in 1901) of 294,361,056. This vast mass of people does not constitute a single nationnality, neither is it divided into a number of different nations of distinct blood and distinct language. They are drawn from four well-marked elements: the Non-Aryan tribes or aborigines of the country; the Aryan or Sanskrit-speaking race; the great mixed population which has grown out of a fusion of the two previous elements; and the Mohammedan invaders from the north-west. These four elements, however, have become inextricably mixed together, some predominating in one portion of the country, some in another, while all are found in everyone of the thirteen provinces, making up the British Empire of India, and in all the native states, of which the most important are Hyderabad, Mysore, Baroda, Kashmir and Jammu, the Rajputana Agency, and the Central Agency; these last two consisting of many states, enjoying different degrees of autonomy.

According to the linguistic survey of India no fewer than 147 distinct languages are recorded as vernacular in India alone. They are grouped thus: (I) The Malayo-Polynesian family to which also the Nicobarese belong; (2) Mon-Khmer family; (3) the Tibeto-Chinese family, and here (a) the Tibeto-Burman, spoken from Tibet to Burma, and (b) the Siamese-Chinese, represented by the Karens and Shans of Burma; (4) the Munda or Kolarian family, almost confined to Chhota Nagpur, its best-known tribe being the Santals; (5) the Dravidian family, which includes the four literary languages of the south, as well as many dialects spoken by hill tribes in central India; (6) the Aryan sub-family of the Indo-European family. Here we have two branches: (a) the Iranian which inhabits Persia, Afghanistan and Beluchistan, and (b) the Indo-Aryan branch spoken by the great mass of the people of Northern India.

The Protestant churches of India practically date only from about the beginning of the nineteenth century, but their progress since that time has been considerable. As is to be expected in the case of a religion with a strong

proselytizing agency, the growth of Christianity is far more rapid even in stolid India than that of the general population. Taking native Christians alone, their number increased from 1,246,288 in 1872 to 2,664,313 in 1901; and the rate of increase in these thirty years was even greater than these figures would show, because they include the Syrian Church, known as “ Christians of St. Thomas,” in Malabar, Travancore and Cochin, whose numbers are practically constant. The classes most receptive of Christianity are those who are outside the Hindu system, or whom Hinduism regards as degraded.

Of the Christian community, natives, Europeans and Eurasians, one-ninth belong to the Anglican communion. For the religious instruction and spiritual guidance of these Christian communities, scattered all over the British Empire of India and the Straits Settlements, devoted missionaries and scholars have translated the Liturgy of the Church into the languages and dialects of which the following chapters, XXVII -XXXIX, aim to give a historical account and bibliographical description. Chapters XL and XLI are devoted to the translations of the Prayer Book for the benefit of the Church in the Far East, China and Corea, Japan and the land of the Ainu.

[1] See, especially, F. Penny, The Church in Madras, Vol. I, Chap. XXI; London, 1904.

[2] During the latter part of the eighteenth and in the early decades of the nineteenth century the three societies, the S.P.C.K., the S.P.G., and especially the C.M.S., availed themselves of the help of German and Danish Lutheran missionaries, whom the Rev. Dr. Carl Friedrich Adolf Steinkopf (1773-1859), pastor of the Lutheran Church in the Savoy (1801-59) and others in Germany had recommended. See also Cornish, A History of the English Church in the Nineteenth Century, Vol. II, pp. 377-379; Penny, pp. 690-692.

[3] Just Hen. Alt, B.A., Pembroke Hall, Cambridge; M.A., Cath., 1824. He was appointed, June 24, 1820, third professor of Bishop’s College.

[4] S.P.G. Report for the year 1901, p. 63.

[5] Stock, History of the Church Missionary Society, Vol. III, p. 808.

CHAPTER XXVII

HINDI TRANSLATIONS

HINDI is the language spoken in the Valley of the Ganges and its tributaries, from the watershed of the Jamnâ, as far down as Râjmahâl, the point where the Ganges takes a sudden turn to the south and breaks out into the plains of Bengal. It is the centre and principal portion of Aryan India. Hindi is divided into East Hindi, spoken by some twenty-two million people, and forming the middle group of the three groups into which the Indo-Aryan family of India falls, according to Hoernle, Grierson and others, and West Hindi, belonging to the inner group. This latter is spoken by about forty-one million people. It is the language of the Hindus, in distinction from the Mohammedans of India, and is based upon the ancient Sanskrit. It is called Prakrit by the literary class, in contrast to the purer Sanskrit of literature. Like Sanskrit, it is written with the Devanagari characters.

A revised Hindi translation of the Morning and Evening Prayer, the Communion and Baptismal Services, was published in 1870 at Bishop’s College, Calcutta, followed in 1872-73, by Hindi translations of the forms of the Ordering and Ordaining of Deacons and Priests (including the Veni Creator Spiritus), Ranchi. This translation was made primarily for the educated natives of Chhota Nagpur, not for the villagers, among whom different dialects are found embracing languages of the Dravidian family as well as of the Kolarian. The translations were made by the Rev. J. C. Whitley.
 

not listed by Griffiths

Jabez Cornelius Whitley was born in London, England, January 20, 1837. He graduated B.A. (Sen. Opt.) from Queen’s College, Cambridge, in 1859, was ordered deacon in 1860, and ordained priest in 1861. He served as S.P.G. missionary at Kurnaul and at Delhi, in the Delhi Mission, from 1862 until 1869; . and at Ranchi, Chhota Nagpur, Bengal, from 1869 to 1890. On March 23, 1890, he was .consecrated first bishop of Chhota Nagpur, in St. Paul’s Pro-Cathedral, Ranchi, India. He died in his diocese at Darjeeling on November 17, 1904, falling asleep without pain or lingering sickness. Whitley was a fine scholar and author of a number of Hindi helps and translations of devotional books, among which may be mentioned especially a prayer book for private use (Benares, about 1874). and a hymnal (Benares, 1880; 2nd edition, enlarged, 1888).

In his wake followed Arthur Logsdail (born in 1854). He was graduated from St. Augustine’s College, Canterbury, in 1879, ordered deacon 1882, and ordained priest 1884, at Calcutta. He has been S.P.G. missionary at Chhota Nagpur, 1882-83; Roorkee, 1883-84; Ranchi, 1884-89; Chaibasa, 1890-98 and 1899-1907, and again from 1908 on. In 1896 he published, through the Anglican Mission at Chaibasa, a church hymnal and prayer book in roman Hindi — a small book for the use of tea-planters at Christian services in their gardens. In 1902 the S.P.G. Report, p. 76, stated that “the Rev. A. Logsdail has brought out a Prayer Book for the Young in Hindi, which is appreciated in Missions beyond his own sphere.” Of the Hindi translation published for the S.P.C.K. at Calcutta in 1893, later revisions, by W. Hooper, were printed in London by Clowes in 1898, 1906, etc. Title-page and text are in the Devanagari type, excepting the lower half of the title-page, which reads: [Book of Common Prayer in Hindi]. | S.P.C.K. | London, . . . | 1906. A transliteration of the Hindi title reads:
 

Griffiths 52:3 (1893, revised 1898)

* Sādhārana Prāthanā | Āura | Sakrāmentom Sambandho Paricaryyā | Āura | Ekklesiyā ke Anya Anya Kriyākarmmom kī | Pustaka | Anglakhanda kī Ekklesiyā kī Rīti ke Anusāra | Aura Psalterya Arthāt Dābīd ke Stotra | Jina Mem Birāma ke .Āise Cinha Likhe Gaye Hāim Jina ke | Anusāra Una ko Ekklesiyām Mem Gānā vā Padhanā | Cāhiye Āura Biçapom ke Samskāra Āura Prīstom ke Sthāpana Āura Dīkarnom ke Banāne kī Paddhati | Āura Vidhi. | ^[1].
 

(1), 684 pages, demy 8vo. Reverse of title-page blank. Printed throughout in long lines. The book omits the three prefaces.

The reviser, William Hooper, studied at Oxford, where in 1856 he was Hody exhibitioner of Wadham College, and, in 1857 Boden Sanskrit scholar. He graduated B.A. 1859; M.A. 1861; B.D. and D.D. in 1887. He was ordered deacon for the colonies in 1861 in London, and ordained priest the following year at Calcutta. He was C.M.S. missioner at Benares, 1861-68; then returned to England. and became curate of Great Maplestead in 1869; vicar of Cressing, Essex, 1870-72. Returning to India, he was principal of St. John’s Divinity School at Lahore from 1874 to 1879, and of St. Paul’s Divinity School at Allahabad,1881-87. From 1889 to 1891 he served as minister of Mt. Albert, Auckland, New Zealand. He then returned to. India, where he has since been C.M.S. missionary at Mussoorie, United Provinces, India.

Besides revising the Hindi Prayer Book, he is author, reviser or translator of a number of other works along the lines of the Hindi and Urdu languages; revising, e.g. the Hindi Old Testament and translating the New Testament into Urdu.

A Manual of Prayers, chiefly from the Book of Common Prayer, was translated into Hindi by the Rev. Fortunato. Pietro Luigi Josa, and published by the S.P.C.K. in 1881. The translator was born in Rome, Italy, in 1851; raised and educated a Roman Catholic, and converted in later years to Protestantism. He graduated in 1871 at St. Augustine’s. College, Canterbury, and was ordained deacon in 1874, and:. priest in 1875, by the bishop of Guiana. From 1876 to 1884 he was S.P.G. missionary to the coolies at Nonpareil, Guiana. At present he is vicar of Christ Church, Georgetown, Demerara. He has always been a zealous worker and faithful distributor of religious literature. The British estates in Guiana employ thousands of immigrant coolies, among whom Josa worked quite successfully, even though the constant shifting of this immigrant population has made religious instruction very difficult. Canon Josa has shown that representatives of at least one race, the Nepalese, which in India had been entirely unreached by any mission, have in Guiana been brought under the influence of the Gospel. His son, the Rev. Edgar Filippo Charles Josa, is also known as a faithful missionary, continuing the noble work begun by Brett among the Pomeroon Indians in British Guiana.

CHAPTER XXVIII

HINDUSTANI OR URDU VERSIONS

HINDUSTANI or Urdu, the dominant language of the Five Rivers, resulted from the mingling of races produced by the Mohammedan conquerors of India. It arose during the Moghul supremacy by the intermingling of (a) Persian, which was the military, court and administrative language of the Mohammedan rulers, and (b) the form of Hindi spoken around Delhi and Agra. It is so closely allied to Hindi, that Beames considers it a mere dialect of Hindi. Being used by the Mohammedans, where Hindi is the language of the Hindus, it is very much farther from the Sanskrit than even the Hindi. It has incorporated ’the flower and grace of Arabic and Persian words. It is usually written with Arabic letters in the: Persian character. The word “Urdu” means “camp,” and is applied to the language as “the language of the camps” of the time of the Moghul conquerors of the eleventh century and their followers. The royal cantonment was the Urdu-e-mu’alla, the “chief camp.” Owing to its adoption by the British Government as the language of the native army and of education and administration among the Mohammedan population, it has become so widely diffused as to be now a lingua franca of the greater part of India.

Henry Martyn, one of the most devout and noble missionaries in the annals of the Christian Church, was born at Truro, England, in 1781. He was one of the most brilliant students of St. John’s College, Cambridge, where in 1801 he graduated B.A. In 1802 he formed the resolution of devoting his life to missionary work. To this he was led by some remarks of Charles Simeon on the good done in India by William Carey, the sanctified cobbler and Baptist missionary, and the perusal of the Life of David Brainerd. His life and work as missionary and scholar are too well known to be recapitulated. He arrived in India in 1806 and died within the next few years at Tokat, Persia, October 16, 1812, on his way home to England. During the short space of four years and a half he performed more literary work of a most scholarly character than has been the good fortune of many others during a much longer period of activity. Endowed with rare linguistic talents, he speedily became fluent in the use of Hindustani. Through his translations he exerted a permanent influence.

By February 24, 1807, he had completed a translation of portions of the Book of Common Prayer into the vernacular, sufficient for the purpose of public worship. It was published after his death by Philip Pereira, at Calcutta, in 1814, entitled: A compendium of the Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments. . . . Translated into the Hindoostanee language. 169 pages, 8vo. Another edition appeared in 1818. 352 pages, 8vo. This was published in London by the Prayer Book and Homily Society. In this edition the Rev. Daniel Corrie (1777-1837), in later years bishop of Madras (1835-37), and Martyn’s most intimate friend, had a share^[1]. While Corrie was archdeacon of Calcutta (1823-35) another revision was published there in 1829, 4to.
 

Griffiths 187:1 (1814); 187:2 (1818); 187:3 (1828, by D. Corrie); 187:4 (1829: 1828 text + ordinal)

[1] Martyn and Corrie wete two of the memorable Bengal “Five Chaplains,” the others being David Brown (1763-1812). Claudius Buchanan (1766-1815) and Thomas Thomason († 1829), the disciple whom Charles Simeon most loved.

A new translation was made by the Rev. William Smith, ,and published at Bishop’s College, Calcutta, of which a revised edition soon appeared, the translator being assisted by the Rev. Samuel Slater. The fourth edition of Smith’s translation appeared in 1864, entitled: Duá i Amím ki Kitáb aur Sákráminton. kí tartíb. . . . Chau thí chhapáí, etc. 428 pages, 8vo. Another edition was published in 1866, xxxviii, 561 pages, 8vo, and still later, in 1889, a revision at Delhi, xliv, 304, 140, 64 pages, 8vo.
 

Griffiths 187:11 (1864 in roman type); 187:12 (1866 in arabic type); 187:16 (1889 in arabic type)

William Smith entered Islington College in 1826, the first year the institution opened its doors for instruction. Together with the Rev. Timothy Sandys^[2] he went to India in 1830. For many years the two worked together as C.M.S. missionaries in Northern India, Sandys forty-one years at Calcutta, Smith forty-one years at Benares. In the latter place Smith collaborated with Charles (Carl) Benjamin Leupolt (1805-84), the well-known German missionary and organizer of schools, orphanages, etc. In addition to preaching and teaching, Sandys and Smith did much valuable literary work, the one in Bengali, the other in Urdu and Hindi. Sandys retired in 1871, Smith in 1872. And, strange to say, both men met their death by accident. Sandys was thrown out of a carriage in Lincolnshire, and died from his injuries on November 8, 1871. Smith survived him three years, and then was killed by a fall from a bridge over the Great Western Railway at Ealing, January 1, 1875.

Samuel Slater, who assisted Smith in his translational work, was educated at King’s College, London; ordered deacon, 1845, by the;bishop of London, and ordained priest in Calcutta 1847. He was stationed in this latter city from 1847 to 1850, in charge of St. Saviour’s Mission. During his ministry the church building, begun in 1841 by the Rev. J. C. Thompson, a C.M.S. missionary, was completed and consecrated in 1848 under the name of St. Saviour’s. In 1850 Slater resigned, to accept a professorship at Bishop’s College (Howrah), Calcutta, where he remained until 1863. He was headmaster of Bishop Cotton school at Simla from 1863 until 1885. He then returned to England, and became rector of Stenigot, in the diocese of Lincoln. During his connection with Bishop’s College Professor Slater published a number of translations and some original work in Hindustani. For this and similar work he was made in 1882 a Lambeth D.D.
 

[2] He was the father of Sir John Edwin Sandys, of St. John’s College, Cambridge, and public orator of the university.

The S.P.C.K. printed an edition in roman characters at London in 1886, entitled, Urdu Version of the Book of Common Prayer, etc., Du’a I ‘Āmm aur Sakrāminton kī Tamil . . . xxv, 270 pages, 8vo. A revised edition of this appeared in 1898 in a neat and convenient form. This version omits nothing but the first three prefaces arid the Forms of Prayer at Sea, and is published with the sanction of the archbishop of Canterbury. The latest output of this translation, published in 1908, has the title:

* Du ’ā i ’Āmm | aur | Sakrāminton | aur | Kalīsiyā kī aur Rusūm o Dastūrāt ke | ’Amal men lāne kī kitāb | Kalīsiyā e Inglistān | ke tarīqe ke muwāfiq. | Jis men nīz | Zabūr, Ya’nī Dāūd ke Mazāmīr, Girjāon men gāne | yā parhne ke liye murattab kiye hūe, | aur | Bishapon ke taqaddus aur Prīston ke taqarrur | aur Dīkanon ke ta’aiyun ki tartīben | Mundaraj hain. | Min Jānib Christian Knowledge Society ke | . . . | London, | 1908.

Facing this Urdu title is the English, which also states that: [The first three Prefaces and the Forms of Prayer at Sea have been omitted, and the first of the two Rubrics at end of Office for Baptism of Adults has also been used as a Preface to the Confirmation Service]. (1), xxv, (1), 274 pages. Demy 8vo. Two columns to the page. Text, headings, etc., in Urdu.
 

Griffiths 187:15 (1886); 187:20 (1898, reissued 1901); 187:23 (1908)

Urdu Prayer Book in Roman type; Griffiths 187:20 (1901 printing)

An edition of the Urdu version in Persian characters was published in 1906. (5), 580 pages. Two columns to the page. Large 8vo. A transliteration of the title, furnished by Professor Yohannan, of Columbia University, New York, reads as follows :

* Du’aī ’Ām | aur | Sakramenton | aur | Kilīsyākī aur Rusūm wa Dastūrāt ke | Āmal men lāni ke kitāb | Kilīsyāī Inglistān ke Tarīķī ke Muāfiķ. | Jis men nīz | Zabūr, y’anī Dawūd ke Mazāmīr, Girjā’un men gānī yā parhnī ke li murattib ke hu’ī Bishpūn ke taķaddus | aur | Pristūn ke taķarrur aur Deacanūn ke ta’ayyun ke tartībīn | mundarij hen . . . Sanah 61907.

possibly Griffiths 187:22 (1907, listed as arabic type)

CHAPTER XXIX

BENGALI AND ASSAMESE TRANSLATIONS

BENGAL, one of the Lieutenant-Governorships of British India, lies north of Madras and the Bay of Bengal, and east of the Central Provinces and the United Provinces. The eastern outer group of Indo-Aryan vernaculars includes the four Aryan languages which are spoken in the East of India: viz., Assamese (one and one-third million), Bengali (about forty-five millions), Oriya (some ten millions) and Bihari (thirty-four and one-half millions). The Bengali is really the language of Lower Bengal, or the region of the Gangetic delta, and of the districts immediately above it and to the east. The Sanskrit letters, with slight modification, are used for writing all, or nearly all, of the dialects of Bengal.
 

not listed by Griffiths

A new version, printed but “not published,” consisting of almost the whole Book of Common Prayer, appeared at Bishop’s College in 1840. The work was done by the Revs. D. Jones, J. Bowyer and C. E. Driberg. The Epistles and Gospels, however, were taken verbatim from the Scriptures published by the Bible Society.

Daniel Jones was born in India and educated at Bishop’s College. He was ordered deacon in 1833, and ordained priest the following year by the bishop of Calcutta. He became Morton’s successor at Tollygunge in 1829, at first as a catechist, and after his ordination in full charge. Here he remained and worked most faithfully until his death, of dropsy, in July, 1853. — James Bowyer was also a student at Bishop’s College from 1825 until 1829; was ordered deacon in 1833, and ordained priest 1835, by the bishop of Calcutta. From 1829 until 1833 he was a cateechist in S.P.G. missions near Calcutta, and tnen was placed in charge of Barripore and Howrah missions from 1833 until 1843. Owing to ill-health he returned to England, where for a number of years he was curate in several parishes. — Charles Edmund Driberg, from Ceylon, was born in 1812. Educated at Bishop’s College, he was ordered deacon in 1835, and ordained priest in 1837. He was stationed at Barripore from 1838 to 1853, and at Tollygunge from 1854 until his death, October 7, 1871.
 

Five years later another revision was published at the same place, omitting the Epistles, Gospels and the Book of Psalms.

Assam, forming the north-eastern frontier of India, was added to the East India Company by the King of Burma in 1826. Since 1874 it has been a separate province of British India, under a lieutenant-governor. The Assamese belongs to the India branch of the Aryan family of languages. It is spoken mainly in the Assam Valley, between the districts of Lakhimpur and Goalpara. It is written with the Bengali character.

The word “ Assamese” is an English one, built on the same principle as “Cingalese” (Sinhalese), “Canarese,” and the like. It is based on the English word “ Assam,” which is a corruption of ’Asām, the Bengali name of the tract which consists of the Brahmaputra Valley.

In 1862 the Rev. C. H. Hesselmeyer, a German Lutheran minister, was stationed at Tezpore, a mission originated by a Captain Gordon about 1850. Urged by the bishop of Calcutta, the S.P.G. in 1862 consented to take up the work at that station, which for some time had been on a very precarious footing. Hesselmeyer was then episcopally ordained by the bishop of Calcutta, and was placed on the . Society’s list. His labours were crowned by a translation of the Book of Common Prayer into Assamese to the end of the Communion Service. It was printed by Gilbert and Rivington in 1871 for the S.P.C.K., 27, 252 pages, 12mo. The book was printed while the translator was on a furlough in Europe. The year it appeared Hesselmeyer died.

Griffiths 10:1

CHAPTER XXX

MARATHI TRANSLATIONS

LIKE the mediate group of the Indo-Aryan vernaculars, the southern one is a group of dialects, and not of languages. It includes only one language, viz., Marathi, spoken by about eighteen million people. Marathi, with its sub-dialects, occupies parts of three provinces, viz., the Bombay Presidency, Berar and the Central Provinces, with numerous settlers in the Madras Presidency and in Central India. It is a language of culture, and is written with the Devanagari characters slightly modified. This modified character, used in writing, is called Balbodh, i.e., “teachable to children.” Missionaries have attempted to introduce the roman letters for writing this language, but without great success.

The Liturgy was translated into Marathi [Pavitra Bāhgīpanāchyā vidhisāthīn raga] by the Rev. John Bathurst Dickson (Dixon), Church Missionary Society, Bombay: Printed at the American Mission Press, 1835, 711 pages, 8vo. The Psalter fills up pages 465-711. This latter was also published separately. On the last page are given the names of “T. Graham and Cursetjee Burjorjee, printers.” They printed at the American Mission Press, Bombay. There were also published portions of this translation of the Liturgy, e.g., “The Order of Morning and Evening Prayer, and the Collects, Epistles and Gospels” (288 pages), and” The Order of Morning and Evening Prayer” (54 pages). Bound up with these is usually the Psalter referred to above.

Dickson was a graduate of Islington College and C.M.S. missionary in the Bombay Presidency, stationed at Nazikh, an important centre of Brahman influence in the Deccan. He was also one of the translators of the Old Testament into Marathi, which was finished in 1851 and appeared, in three volumes, after Dickson’s death.
 

Grifftihs 107:2

The C.M.S. member of a revision of the Marathi translation of the Prayer Book, published in 1868, was John Stuart Strum Robertson. He graduated from Islington College in 1837; was ordered deacon in 1839, and ordained priest 1841 by the bishop of Bombay. He was stationed at Bombay 1839; Nazikh, 1841-57; returned to Bombay in 1857, and from 1858 until his retirement, in 1877, also held the secretaryship of the C.M.S. for the Western India Mission. He served his society for thirty-nine years, and was one of the translators of the whole Bible into Marathi, issued in 1855 in one volume, in connection with the jubilee of the British and Foreign Bible Society. When he left Bombay to return to England he had been seven years president of the Bombay auxiliary of the British and Foreign Bible Society, twelve years one of its general secretaries, and twenty-seven years a member of the Marathi Translation Board.

In this 1868 revision the S.P.G. was represented by the Rev. James Taylor and others. Canon Taylor graduated from St. Augustine’s College, Canterbury, in 1862. He was ordered deacon and ordained priest in 1866 by the bishop of Bombay, and has been honorary canon of Bombay Cathedral since 1901. He was missionary at Bombay, 1865-70 and 1895-97; Kolhapur, 1870-75, 1876-8, 1879-82; Ahmadnagar, 1878-9, 1882-95 and 1899-1906, when he was again returned to Bombay. He retired from active work in May, 1910, but is still taking part in literary and translation work.
 

Griffiths 107:3 (1851) & 107:4 (1862)

This revision was conducted by a committee, which included the Revs. C. S. Rivington, C. King, A. Darby and Canon Taylor. Their work lasted from 1892 to 1900, when the result was printed in 1900 and in later years. A 1908 edition has the English title: * The Book of Common. Prayer, . . . Marathi translation as authorized by the Bishop of the Diocese of Bombay, with the sanction of the Synod of the Bishops of the Province of India and Ceylon, held at Calcutta, January, 1900; the 1901 edition was printed in Bombay, 576 pages, 8vo; the 1908, at the Mission Press, Kolhapur, 578, (2) pages, 8vo. Two columns to the page. The preliminary matter is printed on pages 1-54. The edition contains the Psalter and the Ordinal. The only English in it is the first title-page and the two lines on the reverse of it: Published at the cost of the S.P.C.K. A literal translation of the Marathi title reads:

* Inglandāntīla Ekklesiyecyā Rītyanusāra | Sadhārana Prārthanā | Icem | Āni | Sākramentem Āni Ekklesiyece Itara Vidhi va Karmem | Yāncyā Anusthānācem Pustakah | Āni | Devālayānta Gānyācī Kimvā Hmananyācī Virāmacinhayukta | Stotrasamhitā, Hmanaje Dāvĩdācīm Stotrenh Āni | Episkopāncā Samskāra, Presbutarānci Dīksā, va Dyākona Karanem, | Yāncī Paddhati va Rīti Yānsahita. | I. S. 1900, cyā Jyānuārī Mahinyānta Kalakantā Ethem Hindusthāna va Lankā. | Yāntīla Episkopāncyā Bharalelyā Sabhenta Tharavilyāpramānem Mumbaī | Pradeçācyā Episkopānnīm Adhikārapūrvaka Sammati Dilelem | Hem Marāthī Bhāsāntara Ase. | Kolhāpūrah | Miçana Chāpakhānyānta Chāpilem. | Sana 1908.

Cecil Stansfeld Rivington graduated from Cuddeston College in 1875; was ordered deacon in 1877, and immediately proceeded to Bombay, where he was ordained priest the following year. He was made honorary canon of Bombay Cathedral in 1901 and rural dean of Belgaum in 1904. He was stationed at Poona, W. India, in 1878. From 1891 to 1893 he was missionary at Karli, and at Rahuri from 1893 to 1894. During later years he has been supervising the work at the towns of Bedgeri and Gadag, in the Diocese of Bombay. — Charles King graduated from King’s College, London; ordered deacon in 1882, and ordained priest at Bombay in 1886. He has been S.P.G. missionary since 1882, and served in various places. From 1889 to 1903 he was also organizing chaplain to the bishop’ of Bombay. Since 1906 he has been head of the Ahma(e)dnagar Mission. — Alfred Darby graduated from St. Augustine’s College, Canterbury, in 1889, received his degree of M.A. from the archbishop of Canterbury 1905, and a B.D. from the University of Durham in 1908. He was ordered deacon in 1893, and ordained priest 1895, Bombay. He has been S.P.G. missionary in various places within the Diocese of Bombay. Of late he was at the Rajaram College at Kolhapur, Western India. According to the latest reports he has resigned from active mission work.

Griffiths 107:10 (1900); 107:11 (1908)

CHAPTER XXXI

THE LESSER INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES

GUJARATI means the vernacular language of Gujarat (Guzerat), a region in Bombay Presidency, India. From the richness of the soil the land is often called “The Garden of India,” of Baroda and neighbouring Native States. The name very accurately connotes the area in which it is spoken, viz., the province of Gujarat. It is the court and business language of the Cutch, and has even extended a short distance into Sindh. It is spoken by about ten million people. The name Gujarat is derived from the Sanskrit Gurjaratra, which apparently means the country of the Gurjaras (vernacular Gujars). It is written with the Devanagari letters, or with its own peculiar letters derived from Devanagari. This latter is called Kaithi, but locally known as Gujarati.
 

In 1842 the Morning and Evening Prayers, with the Office of Baptism, were translated into Gujarati by Mr. John Vaupel, interpreter to the Supreme Court of Bombay, and presented to the S.P.G. The manuscript was printed at Bombay about 1843. A revised edition, by the Rev. George L. Allen, missionary at Gujarat, appeared in 1846. The same year Mr. Allen resigned his mission work at Ahmedabad and accepted the appointment to a Government chaplaincy.

The Kashmiri language is spoken in the Valley of Kashmir and in the adjoining hill country by something over a million people. It is an Aryan form of speech, and though related to the languages spoken in the Punjab to its south, it is much more nearly connected with those spoken to its north and north-west. In ancient times the country received its civilization from India, and hence the speech of the inhabitants has had its vocabulary largely increased by an infusion of words derived from Sanskrit. The valley was invaded by Musulmāns in the fourteenth century of our era, and remained subject to their rule until the year 1814, when it was conquered by the Sikhs. During these five centuries about 95 per cent. of the population was converted to the religion of Islam and, exactly as happened in India in the case of Hindustani, a large number of Persian, and through Persian, Arabic words were added to the vocabulary. The Kashmiri is written in a slightly modified form of the Persian character.
 

Griffiths 47:1 & 2

A translation of the Book of Common Prayer was made by the Rev. T. R. Wade. It has an English title, reading: The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration, &c .... (in the Cashmírí language). Published by the Punjab Christian Knowledge Society. First edition. Amritsar; Printed at the Safir-i-Hind Press, . . . 1884. Reverse blank. Then follows the title in Kashmiri, reverse blank. Text, 288 pages, 8vo. Printed in long lines.

Thomas Russell Wade was graduated from the C.M.S. College at Islington in 1860. He was ordered deacon for the colonies in 1862 at London, and the following year ordained priest at Calcutta. He was a C.M.S. missionary from 1862 until 1904, at Peshawar, Lahore, Srinagar, Amritsar and Batala; secretary of the Lahore Mission of the C.M.S., 1904-5; and, again, in active work at Batala and Kashmir, 1905-7. He then returned to England on furlough, and is at present vicar of Shrewton S.O., Wilts, England. At Srinagar Wade began translating the New Testament into Kashmiri, and in 1880 the Sermon on the Mount was issued, both in Persian character and in the old Sarada of the birch-bark books of the eighth century. This script is related to the Devanagari. Some thousand copies of the Gospels and other portions of the New Testament appeared shortly afterward. The whole New Testament in the same language was revised with the help of a Kashmiri catechist and several learned Mohammedans and Hindus, and left the press in 1884. In 1888 Wade published A Grammar of the Kashmīrī language, as spoken in the Valley of Kashmir, North India. . . . London. The same year the archbishop of Canterbury conferred upon him the honorary degree of B.D.
 

Grifftiths 77:1

Griffiths 150:1 (1894, reissued 1897)