The Bible in Malayalam
Let us take the example of the Malayalam translation of the Bible as a representative case fro m India. Although the Christians of Kerala formed one of the ancient Christian communities of the world, they did not have a Bible in their language till the 19th century. As was pointed out earlier, the Bible they followed was in the Syriac language, because the Christians of Kerala descended from Syrian ancestors. This situation changed with the advent of the 19th century when the Church Missionary Society arrived in Kerala and discovered that the Christians of Kerala were “languishing for want of scriptures” (George, 63). Dr. Buchanan the British missionary proposed the translation of the Bible into Malayalam, an idea that was received enthusiastically by the then head of the Syrian Church. Since the British were not very skilled in Malayalam, they took the help of native scholars and priests in this ambitious venture.
Four gospels were initially translated and published in 1811. The translation was made from Syriac, and occasionally the Tamil Bible was also consulted. The British and Foreign Bible Society provided the paper for printing. The Church Missionary Society was based in Kottayam in what was then the princely state of Travancore in the south of Kerala. The British Residents in the state took an active interest in the translation of the Bible, and in 1817 it was decided to translate and publish the complete Bible. Rev. Benjamin Bailey of the Church Missiionary Society was entrusted with the work. Assisted by eight Syrian priests, he completed the translation of the New Testament in 1829. The printing was done at the CMS press. The Old Testament was completed later. A committee was appointed in 1835 to supervise his work and finally it was published in 1841 with their approval.
Like most other Bible translations, this too was a group effort of a host of translators under the leadership of Bailey. There were shortcomings as a result, the most prominent being a lack of uniformity of style. There was also criticism about the style that Bailey adopted in the translation. It was felt to be too colloquial and at times, too close to the western idiom that it sounded strange in Malayalam. K. M. George defends it thus: “It is quite a difficult task to give expression to a completely alien culture in a language far removed in background and mode of expression. In certain situations, therefore, the translator is obliged to sacrifice either idiom or faithfulness to the original. And in the translation of Scripture, it is better to sacrifice idiom in order to preserve fidelity” (64). However, the strength and vigour of this prose helped lay the foundation for modern Malayalam.
The Malayalam Bible which was translated by Bailey and his group was revised and published. The person who undertook this was another great linguist and scholar Dr. Herman Gundert from the Basel Evangelical Lutheran Mission. This was published in late 19th century. An important point to be noted is that the first dictionary in Malayalam was compiled by Gundert and so was the first authorized grammar. Gundert is but one example of how the foreign missionaries helped in the development of local Indian languages through their efforts at translation and lexicography.
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