Thomas Candy (13 December 1804 - 26 February 1877) was an English educator with a lifelong association to India, who made lasting contributions to the lexicography, orthography, and stylistics of the

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

language. Article on 'कॅँडी, मेजर टॉमस (Candy, Major Thomas)' in volume 3 of the Marathi Vishwakosh (Marathi Encyclopedia) by S.R. Deshpande, Marathi Vishwakosh Mandal, Bombay, 1976-2008. Thomas Candy (together with his twin brother George) was born in England on 13 December 1804. After being educated in Indian languages at the

Magdalene College Magdalene College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mar ...

in Oxford University, both were appointed

Quartermasters Quartermaster is a military term, the meaning of which depends on the country and service. In land armies, a quartermaster is generally a relatively senior soldier who supervises stores or barracks and distributes supplies and provisions. In ...

in the armies of the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

. They arrived in India in 1822, and primarily served as translators in several Infantry Regiments of the Company. During the 1830s, the brothers lent valuable assistance to Captain James Thomas Molesworth in the compilation of the English-Marathi dictionary. Although this project suffered a delay due to Molesworth's return to England in 1836 due to ill health, it was pushed to completion by Thomas during the years 1840-1847. George had left the army in 1838 and become a Christian Missionary. He is the author of an early Christian pamphlet in Marathi, titled 'ख्रिस्ती धर्म कसा उत्पन्न झाला आणि कसा पृथ्वीवर वाढला (The Origin and Growth of Christianity on Earth, 1832)'. George subsequently returned to England in 1854. After the completion of the English-Marathi dictionary, Thomas (who remained in India until his death) devoted his energies to the creation of Marathi textbooks in sundry school subjects, as well as Marathi translations of several English treatises, such as the

Indian Penal Code The Indian Penal Code (IPC) is the official criminal code of India. It is a comprehensive code intended to cover all substantive aspects of criminal law. The code was drafted on the recommendations of first law commission of India established ...

and the Indian Civil Procedure Code. He also advised and corrected the work of several other English-Marathi translators. During the late 1860s, he was appointed Chief Government Translator by the British Government. Gogate, Sharad. 'George and Thomas Candy: A Biographical Sketch', Prefaced to Molesworth's Marathi-English Dictionary, Reprinted by Shubhada-Saraswat Publications, Pune, 1996. Thomas newly introduced the use of punctuation marks in Marathi, which was written without them until the mid-nineteenth century. His manual on this subject, titled 'विरामचिन्हांची परिभाषा (The Terminology of Punctuation Marks)' proved influential in the widespread dissemination of this practice. Thomas Candy's works have had a substantial cumulative effect on the style of non-fiction Marathi writing prevalent in the late nineteenth-century. Throughout his life, Thomas served in several capacities as an educator, notably as Superintendent of Poona Sanskrit College, Superintendent of Schools in the southern region, and Principal of the Deccan College. He died in the town of

Mahabaleshwar Mahabaleshwar () is a small town and a municipal council in Satara district, Maharashtra, India. It is a place of pilgrimage for Hindus because Krishna river has its origin here. The British colonial rulers developed the town as a hill station ...

, in Maharashtra, India on 26 February 1877.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Candy, Thomas 1877 deaths 1804 births