CHAPTER XXXII

TRANSLATIONS INTO DRAVIDIAN LANGUAGES, I

DRAVIDIAN (Sanskrit Drauida) is the name given to a collection of Indian peoples and to their family of languages, comprising all the principal forms of speech of Southern India. These languages have been restricted for ages to the territory they occupy at the present day. A number of the Dravidian tribes are gradually becoming Hinduized. Their language adopts an ever-increasing Aryan element, and in time will be quite superseded by Aryan speech. The main languages belonging to this family are the Tamil, the Telugu, the Kanarese or Kannadi, the Malayalam, the Gond and the Malta. The application of the epithet Dravidian to the whole family is hardly correct, according to Pope, as that term must include Marathi. They have also been styled Tamilian, from Tamil, their chief member.

The alphabets of the Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Sinhalese and Burmese have all been derived from the Sanskrit. The chief peculiarity in the type of all these alphabets consists in their spreading out the ancient Indian letters into elaborate mazes of circular and curling form. Roundness is the prevailing mark of them all, though it is more remarkable in the Burmese than in any other, Burmese letters being entirely globular and having hardly such a thing as a straight line in them.

The Tamil — as difficult as any six European languages — is the vernacular speech of about sixteen millions of people inhabiting the great plain of the Carnatic, in the Madras Presidency. The Tamil region includes a portion of South Travancore, the entire Zillahs of Tinnevelly — that stronghold of devil worship — Madura, Trichinopoly, Coimbatore, a great part of Salem, and of North Arcot, with the whole of South Arcot and Chingleput. North Ceylon also is a Tamil colony. Tamil communities are to be found in most of the British cantonments in the Deccan and in various colonies of the empire. It is the most important of the Dravidian family of the non-Aryan languages of India.

The first translator of the New Testament into Tamil was Bartholomaus Ziegenbalg (1682-1719), a German by birth, and member of the Danish Mission at Tranquebar, the printing of which, in 1715, was supported by the S.P.C.K. Ziegenbalg was assisted in his translational work by Johann Ernst Gründler. The Old Testament (Genesis to Ruth, by Ziegenbalg) was completed by Ziegenbalg’s successor, Benjamin Schultze, in 1727; the Bible, as a whole, by Johann Philipp Fabricius, 1782.
 

Thirty-six years after the appearance of the Tamil Bible appeared the earliest version of the Liturgy, entitled: “The Tamul translation of the Book of Common Prayer, etc., together with the Psalter or Psalms of David as they are appointed to be sung in churches.” Serampore: Mission Press, 1818. 12, 378 pages, 8vo. The preliminary matter includes title, table of contents, and dedication to Sir Robert Brownrigg, Governor of Ceylon, dated Colombo, 18 February, 1817, both in English and in Tamil. Also various tables.

The translator was Christian David, a Ceylon Tamil and the first native priest of the Church of England, whom Bishop Reginald Heber (1783-1826) had ordained at Calcutta in 1824. His grandson, of the same name, celebrated in 1910, at the age of 75, the jubilee of his appointment as incumbent of St. James’ Church at Kotahena, a district of Colombo not far from St. Thomas’ College.
 

Griffiths 169:2

Griffiths 169:3

Griffiths 169:4

The next edition, the Prayer Book with the Psalter pointed for singing, appeared in 1828. It was printed at the Vepery Press of the S.P.C.K. 344, 176 pages, 8vo. It was a revision, undertaken by Rottler at the suggestion of Bishop Heber, and with financial aid from him and other donors.

The translator and reviser, the Rev. Johann Peter Rottler, was born in Germany in 1749, and received his training and education there. During the early years of his missionary career he had been a member of the Danish Mission at Tranquebar. He laboured at Madras from 1803 until 1836, and was the last of the old S.P.C.K. missionaries in that place. From 1818 until 1828 he was in charge of the Vepery Mission, and died in 1836, aged 86 years.

In 1841 the Ordination Service appeared from the Vepery Press, translated by the Rev. Valentine. Daniel Coombes. The translator had been educated at Bishop’s College, was ordered deacon 1833, and ordained priest in 1834. He was stationed at Tanjore, 1834-36, and at Combaconum, one of the most idolatrous and wealthiest of South Indian cities, from 1837 until his death in 1844. The Thirty-Nine Articles were translated by the Rev. Adam Compton Thompson, and published in 1842.
 

Griffiths 169:5

A revised edition of the Liturgy, the work of a committee of missionaries, appeared in 1846, entitled: The Book of Common Prayer .... In Tamil. By the Commission of Missionaries in Tinnevelly, appointed for the revision of the Tamil Prayer Book. Madras: S.P.C.K. (22), 214, 216 pages, 8vo. The revision, probably, did not satisfy the Tamil Protestant inhabitants, who in 1850 addressed a letter to Bishop James Chapman (1845-1862), which, together with the bishop’s reply, was published, entitled: A Letter to the . . . Bishop of the Diocese from the principal Tamul Protestant Inhabitants of Colombo on the subject of the translation of the Holy Scriptures, and the Liturgy of the Church of England into the Tamul language [Colombo, 1850]. 12mo.

One of the revisers of the edition of 1846 was the Rev. Robert Caldwell (1814-91); in later years, from 1871 until shortly before his death, coadjutor bishop of Madras as bishop of Tinnevelly, and well-known author of the classic work on the Dravidian languages: A comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian family of Languages.
 

Griffiths 169:8

Messrs. Longmans & Co., London and Madras, published in 1859 Dureisâni-Tamil-Puttagam. The Lady’s Tamil Book, containing the Morning and Evening Services, and other portions of the Book of Common Prayer in Romanized Tamil, accompanied by the English version in parallel columns; together with an Anglo-Tamil grammar and vocabulary by Elijah Hoole. 148 pages, 8vo.

Elijah Hoole was one of the four C.M.S. Tamils who in 1863-65 were ordained in the Jaffna Mission. It is quite probable that he was thus named after Elijah Hoole, the well-known Tamil scholar and Wesleyan Methodist missionary (1798-1872). The ordination of these four candidates evoked from Bishop Piers Calveley Claughton (1814-84) a highly encouraging letter on the work of the Jaffna Mission. Claughton, first bishop of St. Helena (1859-62), had been translated from there, succeeding James Chapman, the first bishop of Colombo (1845-62). Claughton himself retired from his bishopric in 1870, but during the eight years of his episcopate he never failed to bear testimony to the fidelity and worthiness of the native clergy.

That there have been for a number of years two different Tamil translations of the Prayer Book has hampered the work of the Church considerably. This difficulty is now being overcome by the action of a joint committee of the S.P.G. and C.M.S. missionaries; and before long there will be one Tamil Prayer Book.-S.P.G. report for 1912, p. 128.

Next in importance to the Tamil is the Telugu^[1], a lineal descendant of the Andhra dialect of Old Dravidian. It is spoken by the Dravidian race inhabiting the east coast of the peninsula of Hindustan, India, north of the city of Madras and south of the Godabari river. Linguistically it is bounded in the north by the Oriyā (Uriya, beginning with the district of Ganjam); on the north-west by the Marathi, on the south-west by the Kanarese, and on the south by the Tamil. It differs from the Tamil more widely than do the other cognate dialects. The language is refined, sweet and flowing, so that it has been called the Italian of the East. It is spoken by about twenty-one million people. It is also called Gentoo; from the Portuguese Gentio, i.e., Gentile, a name formerly applied to the Telugu-speaking natives of Southern India and to their language.

The editions of the Liturgy, like those of the Bible, are printed in the Telugu character, which was derived from the Brahmi alphabet of Asôka (about 270 B.C.). It is written from left to right, and closely resembles the Kanarese alphabet.
 

[1] According to George Hibbert-Ware, Christian Missions in the Telugu Country, p. I, “Telugu” is “ultimately derived from Trilinga, that is, tri, or three, and linga, or lingam, the emblem of the god Shiva. Tradition has it that Shiva descended in the form of a lingam on three mountains, Kalesvaram, Srisailam and Bhimesvaram.”

Griffiths 172:4 (1858)

Another revision of the Telugu translation was put out in 1880. It contains an English title, to which are added the words: In Telugu. Revised edition, sanctioned by the Lord Bishop of Madras^[2]. Madras: Published by the Madras Diocesan Committee of the S.P.C.K., and sold at their depository, 17 Church Road, Vepery, 1880. The reverse has the line: S.P.C.K. Press, Vepery, Madras, 1880. Then follows the Telugu title, of which the literal translation reads: In England | the Established Church using | the Common Prayer Book. | Also | Sacraments which are administered. | With these also | in Churches the Psalter it must be read | the David’s Psalms. | And also, | Priests and Under Priests to the setting aside, | this appropriate form and manner | in this are contained | . . . Madras, | . . . 1880^[3]. Reverse is blank. Page v, the Contents of this Book, reverse blank. Pages vii, viii contain the Table of Contents in Telugu. The Prayer Book begins with: The Order how the Psalter is appointed to be read, and ends with The Commination Service. Then follow two blank pages and part II, containing the Psalter (pp. 1-232); the Ordinal (pp. 233-266); The Articles of Religion (pp. 267-286) ; and a Table of Kindred and Affinity (pp. 287, 288). The whole book counts xxv, 206, (2), 288 pages, 8vo. Printed in long lines. The section headings are in English and in Telugu, but the running headlines only in Telugu.

One of the chief revisers of this edition was the Rev. John Clay. He was educated at Vepery Seminary, undertook the English work at Cuddapah in March, 1854, and became in September of the same year the first S.P.G. missionary at that place. He died in 1884, after having rendered faithful service at Cuddapah and at Mutialpad (Mutyalapad). He was a good Telugu scholar, and helped also in the revision of the Telugu Bible. He was, in addition, the author of some useful works of instruction in that language.

Griffiths 172:6

[2] The Right Rev. Frederic Gell, bishop of Madras, from 1861 to 1899. He died at Coonoor, India, March 25, 1902, in his eighty-second year.

[3] The translation was furnished by the Rev. W. I. Chamberlain, Ph.D., for many years missionary of the Reformed (Dutch) Church of America at Madras, and now secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions of that Church at New York, N.Y.

CHAPTER XXXIII

TRANSLATIONS INTO DRAVIDIAN LANGUAGES, II

THE Kanarese is the language of the table-land of Mysore, of part of the Nizam’s dominions in Coorg, and of a part of the Kanara. It is also spoken in South Mahratta districts of the Bombay Presidency. The indigenous name Kannada or Karnâtaka is said to mean the “black country,” so called from the colour of the soil. The language is spoken by about ten million people. Its alphabet resembles somewhat the Tamil. All the editions of Bible and Prayer Book are printed in the Kanarese character, which .is closely related to the Telugu.

A Kanarese translation of the Liturgy was made by the Rev. Henry Valentine Conolly, of Calcutta, East Indies Army. It was printed for J. E. Thomas, Esq., at the Bellary Mission Press, 1838. 131 pages, 8vo. The translation ends with the Catechism.
 

Now called Kannada

After an interval of more than fifty years a new version was published in 1891, in which the Rev. C. S. Rivington, Canon James Taylor, Narayan Vishnu Athawale, and the catechist J. Mahade were the chief collaborators.

Canon Taylor and Rivington are mentioned above in Chapter XXX. Athawale was a converted Brahman and native Government clerk, who gave up his office in 1874 and entered the S.P.G. service. He was ordered deacon in 1884, and ordained priest in 1891 by the bishop of Bombay. He was stationed at Ahmadnagar from 1884 to 1888, having laboured before this at Kolhapur and Pandharpur, the capital of Mangalvedha. From Ahmadnagar he was transferred to Hubli (Dharwar). He died at Sonay, July 16, 1907. Athawale and Mahade were also joint translators of “Three Church catechisms for the use of Christian children.” — John Mah(a)de helped the Cowley Fathers in Bombay for many years. In 1904 he was ordered deacon, and ordained priest in 1906 by the bishop of Bombay. Since May, 1910, he has been S.P.G. pastor at Hubli, in charge of the Kanarese Mission at that place.
 

Griffiths 72:2 (apparently untraced)

A complete translation of the Liturgy by a committee of S.P.G. missionaries, consisting of the above-mentioned and others was made in 1895. It was printed in 1896 at Bombay by the diocesan S.P.G.

An edition, published in 1898, has lii, 511, 335, 82 pages. Demy 12mo. The latest edition was put out by the S.P.C.K. in 1907. It has (8), liii, (1), 398, 256, 101, (2) pages; demy, 12mo. The initial (8) pages contain the bastard title, reading: “The Book of Common Prayer,” followed by the same words in Malayalam. Reverse blank. Page (3) the Book of Common Prayer [Malayalam title, covering 11 lines, follows]. Kottayam: Printed for the S.P.C.K. at the C.M.S. Press, 1907. Reverse contains the printer’s mark. Pp. (5, 6), the Contents of this Book. Pp. (7, 8), the same in Malayalam. Then follows the whole Book of Common Prayer, including the prefaces. Part II contains the Psalter; and Part III has the Ordinal, a Form of Prayer for the Twenty-second Day of January, and Articles of Religion. The running headlines· on the obverse are in Malayalam, on the reverse in English. The headings of sections and sub-sections, etc., are in English and in Malayalam. Nos. 1-5, i.e., the three prefaces, the Order how the Psalter is appointed to be read, and the Order how the rest of Holy Scripture is appointed to be read, are in English, without a translation.

The Gôndi (Khondi) is one of the minor dialects cognate to Tamil. It is spoken by some one and one-eighth millions of original hill-men around Chindwara, on the central plateau of India. The Gonds, like the Kolarians, were driven by the Aryan invaders into the mountains and jungles. Hence the country is sometimes ethnologically called Gondwana.

As yet no complete translation of the Liturgy into Gôndi has appeared; only beginnings of it by the Rev. Henry Drummond Williamson, of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He was designated in 1877 by the C.M.S. to the work among these hill tribes, and laboured at Mandla until 1893. He has published through the S.P.C.R. a Gôndi grammar and vocabulary. The dialect which he is mainly representing is Mandla or Mandlaha, also called Parsi Gôndi, the standard form of Gond. Books in this dialect are, as a rule, printed in the Devanagari character.

The Malto. The Rajmahali Hills are a range of hills in Bengal, India, on the south and west of the Ganges, in the angle where this river turns to the south-east. The tribes inhabiting the region are the Santals, a Kolarian people, and the Paharias, i.e., the mountaineers. They call themselves Mâler ("the people"). Their Dravidian language is called Malto, i.e., the tongue of the people. It is spoken by some sixty thousand people. The Pahârias live on the top of the hills, the Santals in the intervening valleys.

A devoted young missionary, the Rev. Thomas Christian, of the S.P.G., attempted during the years 1824-27 to reach the Rajmahal tribes from Bhagalpur, Bengal. In 1825-20 he reduced their language to writing, and produced a vocabulary and a translation of the Gospel of St. Matthew into Malto or Paharee. His early death, in 1827, brought all efforts to a standstill.

The Mission was taken up again by the C.M.S. in 1850. It was in that year that the Rev. Ernst Droese was sent to Bhagalpur. He had originally come to India in 1842 as a member of the Berlin Mission Society, but had lately been engaged by the C.M.S., and was ordained by Bishop Daniel Wilson, of Calcutta. He remained at Bhagalpur for thirty-six years; with but one furlough. He then retired to Mussoorie, and died there in 1891, after almost half a century of active service. He had opened and conducted schools for both Paharias and Santals. He made Malto his special study, and translated into this language the Gospel of St. Luke and the Gospel of St. John, which were published by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1881 and 1882, respectively. Later on followed the remaining two Gospel narratives (1887) and a version of the Psalms (1889). It is quite probable that the Malto version of the Book of Common Prayer entitled:
 

* Kalisiyaki | Sumbrarpo ketabe | athena | Sagr Bacheri lagki Sumbrar Pawriki | Sakramenteki | Ante | Kalisiyaki ado chalare ante Dastureki | pathi kódith | England ante Ayrlandeke tunyrp Kalisiyaki dastur chow, | printed by the Secundra Orphanage Press at Agra in 1886.

(200 pages, large 8vo) is the work of this sturdy and steady German missionary, who is the translator of practically all the portions of the Bible so far translated into Malto. The Malta edition of the Liturgy contains neither the Psalter nor the Ordinal.

CHAPTER XXXIV

THE KOLARIAN GROUP OF TRANSLATIONS
 

THE Kols^[1] are said to comprise two distinct aboriginal races-the Mundas and the Uraons. They constitute some two-thirds of the population of the province of Chhota Nagpur, Bengal Presidency. At the same time they are the least numerous of the linguistic families of India.

“Kol” or “Cole” was originally an “epithet of abuse applied by the Brahminical race to the aborigines of the country who opposed their settlement.” Strictly speaking, the Uraons, thus called by their Aryan-tongued neighbours, they calling themselves Kurukh, are Dravidian. The word “Kol” is a generic term embracing the three principal Rolarian tribes of the province, viz., the Munda Kols of Chhota Nagpur proper, the Larka or fighting Kols of Singbhum district, commonly calls Hos, and the Bhumij Kols of Mambhum district. According to the last census they number approximately 460,000, 372,000 and 111,000, respectively.

The Kolarian or Munda race is assumed by many as the original inhabitant of India, belonging to the earliest stratum of the Dravidian family. It is older than the present Dravidian population, and is believed to have been subjugated by them when the latter invaded their country. ’The Dravidians, in turn, were subdued by the Aryan race from Central Asia. The bulk of the Dravidians were pressed southward. The remnants of the old Kolarians, and also certain Dravidian tribes, retired into the hill districts and jungles of Central India and Western Bengal. They constitute the non-Aryan hill tribes of to-day.

Mundari is spoken in the districts of Ranchi, Palamau, Sambalpur, etc. It has been reduced to writing by missionaries with the use of the roman letters. As a rule, however, books, such as Bibles and liturgies are printed in the Devanagari character.
 

[1] We are indebted to Sir George Campbell (1824-92), the Indian administrator and author, for the word “Kolarian “ as the name of a class of non-Aryans in Central India who are not Dravidians. The term “Munda” for the same people was coined by Friedrich Max Müller.

In 1891 the S.P.C.K. published the Mundari Book of Common Prayer, translated by J. C. Whitley^[2] and native clergy of Chhota Nagpur. (1), 160 pages. Large 8vo. It was printed at Ranchi, and contains the Morning and Evening Prayer, the Litany, the Collects, and the Offices for Holy Communion, Baptism! Churching of Women, Burial Service, and a collection of Psalm;. A portion of the Morning and Evening Prayer had been in use for some time before 1891. Whitley was also the author of A Primer [in Mundārī], for the assistance of missionaries and others. This was published by the Indian Government in 1873.

One of Whitley’s native assistants, the Rev. Prabhusay Bodra, stationed at Nagpur since 1884, and one of his helpers in the translation of the Liturgy, translated also the Catechism into Mundari, published in lithograph script at Ranchi.
 

Griffiths 116:2

[2] A biographical notice of Bishop Whitley is given in Chap. XXVII, “Hindi Translations.”

The latest edition of the Liturgy was put out in Ranchi in 1909. Its title reads:

* Mundarī Binti Puthī | Neāre | Englikana Kalīsiyāreah Thaharāvaakana Bintī | Puthīete | Tarālephā Hodokajīre Olaakanī | 1909, Içvī. | [The Book of Common Prayer in Mundari.] Ranchi: Printed at the G. E. L. Mission Press, | and published by the S.P.G. Mission, Ranchi.

(1), 181 pages, royal 8vo. Printed in long lines. Reverse of title-page blank.

not listed by Griffiths

A later translation was made by the Rev. Daud Singh, assisted by the Rev. Abraham Bodra. It was printed in 1902, and is entirely in Devanagari, excepting the imprint, which reads: Chaibasa, Chhota Nagpur. | Anglican Mission in connection with the Society for | the Promotion of the Gospel. | 1902. Above this imprint is the Ho title, reading, in transliteration:

* Ho | Sadhārana Binatī Pothī | Iñgalenda Eklesiyāreā Sādhārana | Binatī Pothīete Tarāmarā Ho | Kajīre Tarjumākanā.

Reverse of title-page reads Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1902. (2), 456 pages, 12mo.

William Luther Daud Singh was ordained deacon in 1869, and priest in 1872, the first Indian priest in Chhota Nagpur. He was pastor at Chaibasa from 1869 on. The bishop of Calcutta appointed him in 1904 as his commissary, thereby giving public expression of the universal high respect entertained for him by the clergy of the diocese. He was one of the most remarkable native Christians ever admitted to Holy Orders, and served the S.P.G. from the very beginning of their mission in Chhota Nagpur. He died, on Whit Sunday of 1909, at Hazaribagh^[4]. — Bodra was pastor at Ranchi from 1880 to 1889, and since then in like office at Kathbari, diocese of Chhota Nagpur .

[3] Krüger’s German brethren were the Rev. Friedrich Batsch, who had laboured in the same field for twenty-three years and was /pensioned in 1886. He died in 1907. Further, the Rev. Friedrich Bolm, pensioned in 1888, died in 1911; the Rev. Heinrich Batsch, died at Cottbus, October 29, 1898, and Mr. A. Herzog, a layman, who died February 7, 1909.

Griffiths 53:1

[4] See, further, Mission Field, October, 1909.

The Santals^[5] and the Pahârias are the hill tribes of the· Rajmahali hills. The two tribes are totally different, the one being Kolarian, the other Dravidian. The Santals are the most numerous aboriginal tribe in Bengal. Their language, the Santilli is spoken by about 1,800,000 people. They lived originally further south; but in 1832 the Government encouraged them, as they were increasing rapidly, to· settle in the valleys and plains between the Râjmahâli Hills. The Santal villages alternate with those of the Pahârias .

The great missionary among the Santals was the Rev. Edward Lavallin Puxley, the founder of the C.M.S. Santal Mission. He arrived in 1859, reduced the Santālī to writing, and translated into that language the Gospel according to St. Matthew, the Psalms and portions of the Prayer Book. Fever drove him back to England; whence he soon returned for a short time until 1866, when ill-health forced him to, retire altogether. It is rather surprising that no attempt since then has been made by the C.M.S. missionaries among the Santals to prepare a translation of the Liturgy or of portions thereof, especially in view of the fact that great progress has been made by the Missionary Societies working among them. For, whereas some thirty years ago the Santal Christians numbered scarcely more than three hundred, they now number more than fifty thousand all told.

[5] According to a tradition, told by Bradley-Birt in The Story of an Indian Upland (1905), p. 156, the designation for the tribe is thus accounted for; “Travelling again in a south-westerly direction they came to Saont, which, according to them, marks an important stage in their history, since it was here that they first acquired the name of Santals — a designation, however, they never use, ’Hor’ (a man) being the usual name by which a Santal calls himself. . . . No other derivation of the word Santal has been suggested.” On p. 157 Mr. Birt states that as early as 1818 Mr. Sutherland in a report calls them Sontars, a designation which lends support to the derivation of the name.

Griffiths 151:1-4

CHAPTER XXXV

THE SINHALESE PRAYER BOOK

THE island of Ceylon has been an English Crown Colony since 1798, ruled by a governor. Its area amounts to about five-sixths of that of Ireland. Its inhabitants, the Sinhalese, are said to have immigrated from Oude, on the mainland of India, in 543 B.C., driving into the eastern jungles the ancestors of the modern Veddahs, a small tribe of primitive hunters. In A.D. 838 the Tamils, who had frequently invaded the island, established a kingdom in Jaffna. The Portuguese, under Francisco de Almeida, first visited Ceylon in 1585, and three years later acquired possession of it. Their territory passed into the hands of the Dutch in 1658, who in turn gave way to the East India Company in 1796. Two years later the island became a Crown Colony. In 1815 the Kandyan, or Highlanders’, kingdom, the last vestige of native rule in Ceylon, fell into English possession.

The two principal races of the island, the Sinhalese and the Tamil, differ widely from each other, not only in language and religion, but in vigour, intelligence and personal characteristics, the Tamil in Northern Ceylon and originally Hindus, being far superior to the Sinhalese, inhabiting the southern and western part of the island, and being followers of Buddha. The Sinhali belongs to the Indic branch of the Aryan family of languages. It is spoken by almost 70 per cent. of the population; nearly allied to Pali, and derived from a Prakrit of Western Asia. It contains, however, a strong infusion of Tamil vocables.

The Christian element of Ceylon numbers about 350,000, out of a total of 3,500,000 inhabitants. Of these some 180,000 are Sinhalese, the rest are Tamils, inhabitants or immigrants from India.

In 1817 four missionaries were sent out to Ceylon by the C.M.S. They were Samuel Lambrick, Robert Mayor, Benjamin Ward and Joseph Knight. The last named died in Ceylon, 1840. The others returned to England after years of service.

When Lambrick went out to Ceylon he was a man in middle life. He had been a tutor at Eton and was probably the most mature person yet engaged by the society. All four had been ordained for colonial work by Bishop Ryder, of Gloucester.
 

Griffiths calls this language Sinhala.

Griffiths 157:1

Griffiths 157:2 (1827, said to be untraced)

Griffiths 157:3 (1831)

 
Griffiths 157:4 (1843, “possibly re-issue of a 3rd ed. dated 1839”)

Griffiths 157:7 (1889)

Griffiths 157:6 (1866, reissued 1869, 1873, 1881, 1883)

An entirely new translation was made a few years ago. The report of the S.P.G., 1908, page 138, states that:

“The Singhalese Prayer book has been at last retranslated and revised. It has also been submitted to the Episcopal Synod of the Province, and has been sanctioned. The new version, therefore, has now come into use; and it is hoped that it will replace the translations which have been in vogue hitherto.”

Griffiths 157:8