Languages spoken in the

Indian Subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...

belong to several language families, the major ones being the

Indo-Aryan languages The Indo-Aryan languages (or sometimes Indic languages) are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. As of the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily ...

spoken by 75% of Indians and the

Dravidian languages The Dravidian languages (or sometimes Dravidic) are a family of languages spoken by 250 million people, mainly in southern India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan. Since the colonial era, there have been small but significant ...

spoken by 20% of Indians. Other languages belong to the

Austroasiatic The Austroasiatic languages , , are a large language family A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The te ...

Sino-Tibetan Sino-Tibetan, also cited as Trans-Himalayan in a few sources, is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 billion native speakers of Chinese languages. ...

, Tai-Kadai, and a few other minor language families and isolates. India has the world's second-highest number of languages (780), after

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

(839). The first known translation of any

Christian Scripture A biblical canon is a set of texts (also called "books") which a particular Jewish or Christian religious community regards as part of the Bible. The English word ''canon'' comes from the Ancient Greek, Greek , meaning "ruler, rule" or "measu ...

in an Indian language was done to

Konknni Konkani () is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Konkani people, primarily in the Konkan region, along the western coast of India. It is one of the 22 Scheduled_languages_of_India, scheduled languages mentioned in the ...

in 1667 AD by Ignacio Arcamone, an Italian

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

North Indian languages

* Bible translations into Hindi and Urdu *

Bible translations into Konkani The history of Bible translations into the Konkani language begins with Ignazio Arcamone (1615–1683), an Italian Jesuit working in Salcette, Goa was the first to translate parts of the Bible to Konkani language. It was published under the title ...

Bible translations into Marathi The first Marathi translation was made by Vaidyanath Sarma under the supervision of the Serampore missionaries and William Carey at Fort William College. However Carey's translation was found lacking, and was revised by two American missionaries, ...

* Bible translations into Nepali *

Bible translations into Sanskrit Translation of the Bible into Sanskrit is among the first wave of Bible translations into Indian languages. History Translation work of the Bible into Sanskrit was undertaken by William Carey soon after his arrival in India as a missionary. He h ...

Gujarati

A Gujarati translation of the Bible had been issued by the

Serampore Mission Press The Serampur Mission Press was a book and newspaper publisher that operated in Serampur, Danish India, from 1800 to 1837. The Press was founded by William Carey, William Ward, and other British Baptist missionaries at the Serampur Mission. It b ...

in 1820, and William Carey had contributed to it. James Skinner and

William Fyvie William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conques ...

of the London Missionary Society continued the work. These were all superseded by

J. V. S. Taylor Rev. Joseph van Someran Taylor (Bellary, 3 July 1820 – Edinburgh, 2 June 1881), known more commonly as J. V. S. Taylor, was a Scottish Christian missionary and writer of Gujarati language. He made the earliest attempt among westerners at writin ...

's 1862 "Old Version" which remains the standard version today. The first Gujarati translation was undertaken by the Serampore Mission Press in 1820. Then in 1861 Rev. J. V. S. Taylor translated the Bible into Gujarati. In collaboration with ''Church centric bible translation'', Free Bibles India has published a Gujarati translation online. In 2016, the New Testament of New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures was released by

Jehovah's Witnesses Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The group reports a worldwide membership of approximately 8.7 million adherents involved in ...

in Gujarati."WatchTower publications", Watchtower publications Index (1986-2016) with mobile versions released through ''JW Library'' application in App stores.

Punjabi

The

British and Foreign Bible Society The British and Foreign Bible Society, often known in England and Wales as simply the Bible Society, is a non-denominational Christian Bible society with charity status whose purpose is to make the Bible available throughout the world. The Soc ...

produced translations in Western Punjabi in Persian script and Roman script, and Eastern Punjabi in Gurmukhi script. The Western Punjabi Persian script New Testament of 1912 was revised in 1952 and some books of the Old Testament were published in Persian script. Some books were also published in Roman script. In collaboration with ''Church centric bible translation'', Free Bibles India has published a
Eastern Punjabi translation online
in Gurmukhi script. In 2011, the New Testament of New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures was released by

Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...

. It wa
published online
(also offline i
PDF format
with mobile versions released through ''JW Library'' application in App stores.

East Indian languages

Oriya

In collaboration with ''Church centric bible translation'', Free Bibles India has published an Oriya translation online.

Assamese

Nathan Brown, a Baptist, translated Bible into

Assamese Assamese may refer to: * Assamese people, a socio-ethnolinguistic identity of north-eastern India * People of Assam, multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic and multi-religious people of Assam * Assamese language, one of the easternmost Indo-Aryan language ...

(1848) and Shan (1830s). In collaboration with ''Church centric bible translation'', Free Bibles India has published an Assamese translation online.

Bengali

William Carey translated Bible into Bengali Bible into Bengali. In collaboration with ''Church centric bible translation'', Free Bibles India has published a Bengali translation online.

Northeast Indian languages

The first translation of the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

into any of the

languages of Northeast India Northeast India (officially North Eastern Region, NER) is the easternmost region of India representing both a geographic and political Administrative divisions of India, administrative division of the country. It comprises eight States and union te ...

was in

(1883) followed by

Khasi Khasi may refer to: * Khasi people, an ethnic group of Meghalaya, India * Khasi language, a major Austroasiatic language spoken in Meghalaya, India * Khāṣi language, an Indo-Aryan language of Jammu and Kashmir, India See also * Khasi Hills * Gh ...

version, published in 1891. Translations into many other languages have appeared since then with the most prominent and largest languages such as Garo (1924),

Mizo Mizo may refer to: *Mizo people, an ethnic group native to north-eastern India, western Myanmar (Burma) and eastern Bangladesh *Mizo language, a language spoken by the Mizo people *Mizoram, a state in Northeast India *Lusei people, an ethnic group ...

(1959),

Bodo Bodo may refer to: Ethnicity * Boro people, an ethno-linguistic group mainly from Northwest Assam, India * Bodo-Kachari people, an umbrella group from Nepal, India and Bangladesh that includes the Bodo people Culture and language * Boro cu ...

(1981), Meitei (1984),

Kokborok Kokborok (also known as Tripuri or Tiprakok) is the main native language of the Tripuri people of the Indian state of Tripura and neighbouring areas of Bangladesh. Its name comes from ''kok'' meaning "verbal" and ''borok'' meaning "people" or ...

(2013) and

Nyishi The Nyishi community is the largest ethnic group in Arunachal Pradesh in north-eastern India. In Nyishi, ''Nyi'' refers to "a human" and the word ''shi'' denotes "highland".The Nyishis are mentioned as the Daflas in the contemporary Ahom docu ...

(2016). The list of languages with year of Bible translations are listed in table below.

Dravidian languages

Bible translations into Tamil The history of Bible translations into the Tamil language commences with the arrival of Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg at Tranquebar in 1706.Johann Philipp Fabricius, a German, revised Ziegenbalg's and others work to produce the standard Tamil versi ...

Bible translations into Telugu The first translation was by Rev. Benjamin Schulz who translated parts of Bible in the early part of 18th century. The manuscripts were sent to Germany for printing but were not printed. The main translation into the Telugu language was Lyman Jewe ...

Bible translations into Kannada The first attempt to translate Bible into Kannada was by the Serampore missionaries and they appear to have it completed by 1809. However this manuscript was lost in the 1812 fire at the Serampore press. Some parts of the Bible were translated int ...

Bible translations into Malayalam Translation of the Bible into Malayalam began in 1806.The Manjummal translation is the first Catholic version of the Bible in Malayalam. This is the direct translation from Latin. The four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles were translated by the ...

Paniya

Paniya Paniya is one of the Malayalam languages spoken in India. It is spoken by the Paniya people, a scheduled tribe with a majority of its speakers in the state of Kerala. The language is also known as ''Pania'', ''Paniyan'' and ''Panyah''. It belongs ...

is a Southern Dravidian language mainly found in

scheduled castes The Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are officially designated groups of people and among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in India. The terms are recognized in the Constitution of India and the groups are designa ...

in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Indian Bible Translators (IBT) have translated and published the New Testament in the Paniya language(2016). Thambi Durai and Elizabeth are the translators in Paniya for Indian Bible Translators. Currently IBT is carrying out the translation of Old Testament in Paniya. Stephen Daniel translated the portions of the Bible into the Paniya language. Theyyam Mancheyaathaayina Kathe, the Translation of the New Testament in the Paniya language was pioneered and presented by Mathews Vergis to the Paniya tribe on 30 December 2008. The Paniyas have historically worked as agricultural laborers. People who natively speak Paniyas are mainly found in the borders of Kerala and Mysore, with a dwindling population of about approximately 120,000. Initially only the Gospel of Luke was translated and presented to the tribe. The Paniya language has no script of its own which is why Mathews Vergis used the Malayalam script to publish the Bible in their language.

Jennu Kuruba Language

Vasa Nyama, the Translation of the New Testament in the Jennu Kuruba language was published by Mathews Vergis to the Jennu Kuruba tribe on 10 September 2015. People of the Jennu Kuruba tribe are traditionally honey gatherers and are found in forests in Southern central India. Since the forests are getting slaughtered and synthetic honey is replacing natural honey, the tribe is decaying and the people are getting scattered. Initially only the Gospel of Mark was translated and presented to the tribe. Mathews Vergis completed and presented the entire New Testament because of the earnest and eagerness of the Jennu Kuruba people, though few in number. The Jennu Kuruba language has no script of its own and hence Mathews Vergis used the Kannada script to present the Bible in their language. This is the first piece of literature in print ever since the existence of this tribe.

Benjara

Navo Karar, the translation of the New Testament in the Benjara language of the Benjara ethnic tribe was published by Mathews Vergis on 12 August 2015. The people of the Benjara tribe migrated from Afghanistan and settled in Rajasthan, India long ago. They were salt merchants and suppliers of bullocks. Being nomadic in nature, they spread to different parts of India, namely Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Maharashtra. In Karnataka they are known as Lambanis and in other places as Lambadis. Among these states, the state of Karnataka has about a million Lambanis – the highest in India. The Benjara language has no script and the people are familiar with the language of the home states. Thus Kannada script is used to present the Bible to the Lambanis to understand the Bible in their language. This is the first piece of literature to be printed in the Benjara language.

Kulu

Markana Nalla Shuddhi, the translation of the 'Gospel according to Mark' in the Kulu Language spoken by the ethnic Korama and Koracha tribes of South India, was pioneered by Mathews Vergis and was presented to the tribe on 28 December 2015. Though the language is spoken by around 200,000 of people belonging to the Koracha and Korama tribes, it failed to find a place in the dictionary of Indian tribal languages along with scores of other tribal languages recorded in the Census taken by the Government of India a decade and half ago. It was the request of the people of the Koracha and Korama tribes that propelled Mathews Vergis to pioneer the translation of the Gospel according to Mark into the Kulu language. Incidentally this is the first piece of literature in print ever since the existence of the Koracha and Korama tribes on earth.

Tulu

Parts of The New Testament were translated into the

Tulu language Tulu () in Kannada script, ml, ത‍ുള‍ു ഭാഷെ in Malayalam script. ''bhāṣe'', , ''bhāśe'', and ''bāśe'' are alternative spellings for the Tulu word ''bāse'' in the Kannada script. The correct spelling for the word ...

of Karnataka in

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

script in 1842 and the complete New Testament in 1847 by the Basel Missionaries in

Mangalore Mangalore (), officially known as Mangaluru, is a major port city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats about west of Bangalore, the state capital, 20 km north of Karnataka–Ker ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bible Translations (India) Languages of India Christianity in India

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...