The Batticotta Seminary was an educational institute founded by the

American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was among the first American Christian missionary organizations. It was created in 1810 by recent graduates of Williams College. In the 19th century it was the largest and most imp ...

(ABCFM)'s

American Ceylon Mission The American Ceylon Mission (ACM) to Jaffna, Sri Lanka started with the arrival in 1813 of missionaries sponsored by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM). Although they had originally planned to work in Galle, the Brit ...

at Vaddukodai, in the Jaffna Peninsula north

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

in 1823. It was founded as part of the medical mission of

John Scudder, Sr John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Seco ...

. and was subsequently led by Nathan Ward. In 1846 the mission experienced a significant cholera outbreak. Emerson Tennent judged the Batticotta Seminary equal in rank with many European universities. The late Sabapathy Kulendran, the first bishop of the Jaffna

Diocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associ ...

of the

Church of South India The Church of South India (CSI) is a united Protestant Church in India. It is the result of union of a number of mainline Protestant denominations in South India after independence. The Church of South India is the successor of a number of P ...

(JDCSI) observed that the seminary brought about a tremendous upsurge the like of which has never been seen in the country before or after.

Closure

It was closed in 1855 under the leadership of E. P. Hastings. The reason for such a decision being that it was not successful in the mission of its founding namely, conversion of

Hindus Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

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 popula ...

Reopening

The seminary was reopened in 1871 by alumni as

Jaffna College __NOTOC__ Jaffna College is a private school in Vaddukoddai, Sri Lanka. It was founded in 1871 as a successor to the Batticotta Seminary which had been established by American missionaries. History In 1816 American missionaries founded the ...

with EP Hastings as the first principal.Jaffna College History

References

History of Jaffna District Evangelical seminaries and theological colleges 1823 establishments in Ceylon American Ceylon Mission 1820s establishments in Ceylon Religious organisations based in Sri Lanka {{seminary-stub