Ferdinand Kittel (7 April 1832 – 18 December 1903) was a

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

priest and indologist with the

Basel Mission The Basel Mission is a Christianity, Christian missionary society based in Switzerland. It was active from 1815 to 2001, when it transferred the operative work to , the successor organization of ''Kooperation Evangelischer Kirchen und Missione'' ...

in south India and worked in

Mangalore Mangaluru (), formerly called Mangalore ( ), is a major industrial port city in the Indian state of Karnataka and on the west coast of India. It is located between the Laccadive Sea and the Western Ghats about west of Bengaluru, the st ...

, Madikeri and

Dharwad Dharwad (), also known as Dharwar, is a city located in the northwestern part of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is the headquarters of the Dharwad district of Karnataka and forms a contiguous urban area with the city of Hubballi. It was merged ...

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

. He is most famous for his studies of the

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

language and for producing a Kannada-English dictionary of about 70,000 words in 1894. He also composed numerous Kannada poems.Journal of the Karnatak University: Humanities: Volume 19 Karnatak University - 1975 "He was also involved in the work of the revision of the Kannada Bible. But his magnum opus was the school dictionary English- Kannada Shala Nighantu, which saw the light of the day in 1876. Though William Reeve (missionary) compiled and published ..."

Early life

Kittel was born 7 April 1832 in Resterhafe,

East Frisia East Frisia () or East Friesland (; ; ; ) is a historic region in the northwest of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is primarily located on the western half of the East Frisia (peninsula), East Frisian peninsula, to the east of West Frisia and to the ...

, off the northwestern coast of Germany. His father, Gottfried Christian Kittel, was a priest. His mother was Helen Hubert. Kittel was the eldest of five children. His education was praised by the headmaster as "Never Less Than Good." He joined the

at the wish of his father.

In India

Kittel learned Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French and English. He arrived in India in 1853. As a missionary, he endeavoured to follow Paul's

first Epistle to the Corinthians The First Epistle to the Corinthians () is one of the Pauline epistles, part of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The epistle is attributed to Paul the Apostle and a co-author, Sosthenes, and is addressed to the Christian church i ...

and "become as an Indian unto the Indians". Having a strong desire to learn Kannada, he undertook exhaustive studies learning the Kannada language, customs and local music. This earned rebuke from the Basel Mission, where he was already an outsider on account of his North German origin and academic education (the other missionaries were chiefly from southwest Germany and the lower/middle classes, though Gottfried Weigle had studied at Tübingen). This marginalised him by pushing him to a remote station in the Nilgiris and later confining him to the mission's press in Mangalore. He returned to Germany, but visited India again in his fifties to complete his dictionary, which by then had become for him an end in itself, and not merely an instrument secondary to missionary work.

Contribution to Kannada

Kittel worked in

, Madikeri and

, inspired by and attracted to Kannada Literature. He is most famous for his studies of the

language and for producing a Kannada-English dictionary of about 70,000 words in 1894. (Many Kannada-language dictionaries had existed at least since poet Ranna's 'Ranna Khanda' in the tenth century.) Kittel also composed numerous Kannada poems. In 1862, Kittel, published his Kannada poem `Kathamale' which presented the life of Jesus Christ in the form of Indian musical metre style. Kittel also wrote a book on

Kannada grammar Standard Kannada grammar () is primarily based on Keshiraja's Shabdamanidarpana (c. 1260 CE) which provides the fullest systematic exposition of Kannada language.''Studies in Indian History, Epigraphy, and Culture'' – By Govind Swamirao Gai, p ...

called ''A Grammar of the Kannada Language: Comprising the Three Dialects of the language''. He translated Nagavarma's work on Kannada prosody. Originally published by Basel Mission Book & Tract Depository, 1875.

Contemporary recognition

Kittel is today almost forgotten in Germany, but is still widely recognised in Karnataka. Many educational institutions have been named after him. A statue at the end of

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

road in the city of

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

commemorates him. Austin Town in Bangalore was renamed "Kittel Nagar".

Legacy

The book ''An Indian to the Indians? On the Initial Failure and the Posthumous Success of the Missionary Ferdinand Kittel (1832–1903)'', edited by Reinhard Wendt, describes various aspects of his work.

Reviews
Robert Eric FrykenbergMartin KriegerNile Green
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References

External links

Ferdinand Kittel and the Cultural Dialogue with India
International Seminar, Germany 2003

at Kamat's Potpourri {{DEFAULTSORT:Kittel, Ferdinand East Frisians Lexicographers Lutheran missionaries in India Dravidologists Christian clergy from Mangalore 1832 births 1903 deaths Linguists of Kannada Translators of the Bible into Kannada 19th-century German translators German Protestant missionaries German expatriates in India German missionary linguists 19th-century German linguists 19th-century German lexicographers