Tamil Language and the Timeless Translations By the Europeans 1543-1887
Author Stephen, S Jeyaseela
Year 2021
Binding Hardback
Pages xiv+293p, bib, ind, 24 cm
ISBN10, ISBN13 9386463164, 9789386463166
List Price: US $28.95
Your PriceUS $21.71
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Untitled Document

About the Book:
This book shows how translation served a significant step towards greater interaction and understanding between the people of Tamil country, Sri Lanka and Europe. It dwells upon a wide range of translations of the printed books from Portugal, Spain, Italy, The Netherlands, Germany, England and France to Tamil including Bible in Hebrew, Greek, German, Portuguese and Latin. It exhibits how translation became an important and integral part of the missionary work, a policy that encouraged close contacts to reach out the people. Translation from Tamil to Portuguese, Latin, German, Danish, French and English had also been executed without any impediments.

The author outlines the patterns of production, circulation and consumption of the printed works and their translations in the early modern age by giving translators their rightful place in the complex networks of authors, patrons, printers, book-sellers, and readers that shaped the market. The introduction of print media constituted an effective and a meaningful step towards Tamil prose development and translation growth.

The volume in innumerable ways very subtly explains how the missionaries came to understand Tamil language to have had links with other classical languages like Hebrew, Greek and Latin in the course of Bible translation. Tamil evolved through translations and gained fresh vocabulary and gradually built its own rules for translation. The study also reports the steps made in the translation from Sanskrit, Marathi, Bengali and Telugu into Tamil and expresses the significance.

Contents:
Preface
List of Illustrations
Abbreviations
1. Introduction
2. Importing Books from Portugal to India: Making Translations from Latin, Portuguese, Italian and English
into Tamil by the Catholic Missionaries, 1543-1865
3. Shipping Books from the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and England to India and Sri Lanka: Making Translations from Dutch, German and Portuguese into Tamil by the Protestant Missionaries, 1661-1825
4. Translations from English, Sanskrit, Marathi, Bengali and Telugu into Tamil by the Protestant Missionaries
and the Tamils, 1714-1857
5. Translation from Tamil to Portuguese, Latin, Danish, English, German and French, 1661-1887
6. The Conception, Production, and Circulation of the Bible Translation from Latin to Tamil by the Catholic
Missionaries, 1554-1857
7. The Bible Translation and Transmission from Hebrew, Greek, German, Portuguese and English into Tamil by
the Protestant Missionaries, 1708-1850
8. The Development of Tamil Prose, its Style and the Impact of Print in the Age of Translation, 1554-1857
9. Conclusion
Bibliography
Index.


About the Author:
S. Jeyaseela Stephen
is Directeur, Institut pour études Indo-Européennes. He was Professor of Maritime History (2001-2013) at Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan. He is the author of numerous books including ‘Oceanscapes: Tamil Textiles in the Early Modern World’ (2014), ‘A Meeting of the Minds: European and Tamil Encounters in Modern Sciences, 1507-1857’ (2016), ‘Pondicherry under the French: Illuminating the Urban Landscape, 1674-1793’ (2018), ‘Towns of the Tamil Coast and Hinterland: The Changing Form and Function, 1506-1801’ (2019), ‘Natural History Knowledge, Tamil Coast and the Atlantic Within Reach, 1639-1857’ (2019) and ‘Tamil History: The Spread of the Publishing Industry and Technology (1578-1873)’ (2020). He received the best book prize of the year 1999 from the Government of Tamil Nadu. His books have been translated into Chinese and Tamil.