Tamil Wisdom, by Edward Jewitt Robinson, 1873

Edward Jewitt Robinson was a 19th-century

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missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. He is best known as one of the earliest translators of the

Tirukkural The ''Tirukkuṟaḷ'' ( ta, திருக்குறள், lit=sacred verses), or shortly the ''Kural'' ( ta, குறள்), is a classic Tamil language text consisting of 1,330 short couplets, or Kural (poetic form), kurals, of seven ...

into

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Biography

Edward Jewitt Robinson published a collection of ancient Tamil texts, including the Tirukkural, translated into English in 1873. The work was titled ''Tamil Wisdom''. Facilitating the evangelical works of the missionaries like

Constanzo Beschi Constantine Joseph Beschi (8 November 1680 – 4 February 1747), also known under his Tamil name of ''Vīramāmunivar'', was an Italian Jesuit priest, missionary in South India, and Tamil language littérateur. Early years Born in Castiglione ...

, Ziegenbalg, and Percival, Robinson published an enlarged version of the work under the title ''Tales and Poems of South India'' in 1885. In the preface of his second work, he acknowledged the earlier translations by F. W. Ellis, W. H. Drew,

Karl Graul Karl Graul (6 February 1814 – 10 November 1864) was a leader of Leipzig Lutheran mission and a Tamil scholar. He was born in a poor weaver family in Germany. He moved to India as the director of the Lutheran Leipzig Mission in 1849 and ther ...

and

Charles E. Gover Charles Edward Gover (1835–1872) was a British folklorist in Madras (present-day Chennai), India. He was one of the earliest translators of the Tirukkural into English. Life Gover was the son of Thomas Gover of Poplar, Middlesex. In 1864, he ...

. Robinson, like other earlier missionaries, translated only the

first First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

(''Aram'') and second books (''Porul'') of the Kural text, translating 108 chapters in verse. He did not translate the

third book Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * Second#Sexagesimal divisions of calendar time and day, 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (d ...

(''Inbam''). His English contemporaries greatly praised his verse translation, although native scholars of later years, such as

T. P. Meenakshisundaram Thenpattinam Ponnuswamy Meenakshisundaram (1901–1980), popularly known as Te Po Meenkshisunadaranar, was an Indian scholar, writer of Tamil and English literature and the founder vice chancellor of Madurai Kamaraj University. Life Born on 8 J ...

, had some reservations about its fidelity to the original.

G. U. Pope George Uglow Pope (24 April 1820 – 11 February 1908), or G. U. Pope, was an Anglican Christian missionary and Tamil scholar who spent 40 years in Tamil Nadu and translated many Tamil texts into English. His popular translations included t ...

, in his preface to ''The Sacred Kurral'', felicitated Robinson thus:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Edward Jewitt Protestant missionaries in India Tamil scholars of non-Tamil background Tamil–English translators Translators of the Tirukkural into English Tirukkural translators Missionary linguists

Biography

See also

References