John Lazarus (1845–1925) was a

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

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 ...

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 ...

who rendered 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 ...

. He revised the work of his predecessor William Henry Drew, who had already translated the first 63 chapters (out of the total of 133 chapters) of the Tirukkural, and translated the remaining portion of the Kural text.

Work

John Lazarus completed his graduation from the

University of Madras The University of Madras (informally known as Madras University) is a public university, public State university (India), state university in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1857, it is one of the oldest and among the most prestigiou ...

. His first work was in 1878 when he published ''Nannul'', a grammatical text, with an English translation meant for students. However, scholars consider his Tirukkural translation of chapters 64 through 133 (furthering the work of William Henry Drew) in 1885 ''A Dictionary of Tamil Proverbs with Introduction, Notes, Texts and Translation'' in 1894 as his greatest contributions to the Tamil literature. His Tirukkural work made him the first person to render into English prose the chapters 64 through 133 of the Kural text. The ''Dictionary of Tamil Proverbs'' contained 10,000 proverbs which remains the most complete collection ever made. Being a Christian missionary, Lazarus, too, like

G. U. Pope George Uglow Pope (24 April 1820 – 11 February 1908), or G. U. Pope, was an Anglicanism, Anglican Christianity, Christian missionary and Tamil language, Tamil scholar who spent 40 years in Tamil Nadu and translated many Tamil language, Tamil ...

, initially claimed that

Valluvar Thiruvalluvar (Tamil language, Tamil: திருவள்ளுவர்), commonly known as Valluvar, was a celebrated Tamil people, Tamil poet and philosopher. He is best known as the author of the ''Tirukkuṟaḷ'', a collection of coup ...

's ideas were partly influenced by

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

. However, he later denied Pope's claim by saying the Kural portrays no traces of distinctively Christian ideas. None of the ten epithets by which

God In monotheism, monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator deity, creator, and principal object of Faith#Religious views, faith.Richard Swinburne, Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Ted Honderich, Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Ox ...

is described in the introductory chapters of the Kural text have the remotest connection with the concept of God as designated in 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 ...

. John Lazarus observes that, in stark contrast to the Bible's concept of killing, which refers only to the taking away of human life, the Kural's concept of killing pertains to both humans and animals as it "deals exclusively with the literal taking away of life".

Kamil Zvelebil Kamil Václav Zvelebil (November 17, 1927 – January 17, 2009) was a Czech scholar in Indian literature and linguistics, notably Tamil, Sanskrit, Dravidian linguistics and literature and philology. Life and career Zvelebil studied at the Char ...

endorses this saying that the chapter of the Kural text on "non-killing" (chapter 33) deals exclusively with the literal taking away of life, without ambiguity,''The Tamilian Antiquary'', 1913, Vol II, No. 1. which suggest that the ethics of the Kural is rather a reflection of the Jaina moral code than of

Christian ethics Christian ethics, also known as moral theology, is a multi-faceted ethical system: it is a virtue ethic which focuses on building moral character, and a deontological ethic which emphasizes duty. It also incorporates natural law ethics, whic ...

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References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lazarus, John Christian missionaries in India Tamil scholars of non-Tamil background Tamil–English translators Translators of the Tirukkural into English Tirukkural translators Missionary linguists 1845 births 1925 deaths

Work

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