BICENTENARY OF MALAYALAM BIBLE TO BE CELEBRATED

BICENTENARY OF MALAYALAM BIBLE

TO BE CELEBRATED

According to Church historians, Philipose Ramban, a local scholar from Kayamkulam in south Kerala, translated the Bible from Syriac into Malayalam in 1811.He did this for a better understanding of the scripture for the local devotees.Reverend Claudius Buchannan, a missionary who toured southern India in the early 19th century, persuaded Ramban to translate the holy text into the regional language.During his visit to the state, the Orthodox Church authorities in Travancore gave Buchannan a copy of the Bible in Syriac- known in local parlance as 'Suriyani'.For centuries, Syriac was the litrugical language of Christians in the state, who believe that the gospel was preached in Kerala by St Thomas the Apostle.While appreciating the gesture, Buchannan told the Church leaders to translate the Syriac text into Malayalam and gave guidance to some local Suriyani and Tamil scholars to undertake the task.  Malankara Syrian Orthodox church will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the first translation of the Bible into Malayalam. Church historians say Philipose Ramban, , a scholar from  Kayamkulam, translated the Bible   from Syriac into Malayalam in 1811 to help believers get a better understanding of the scripture. Claudius Buchanan, a missionary who toured South India in the early 19th century, persuaded Ramban to translate the holy book. Orthodox Church authorities in Travancore gave Buchannan, during his visit to Kerala, a copy of the Bible in Syriac, known in local parlance as Suriyani. Buchannan told them to translate the Syriac text into Malayalam and gave guidance to some local Syriac and Tamilscholars to undertake the task.For centuries, Syriac was the liturgical language of Christians in Kerala, who believe that St Thomas the Apostle preached the Gospel in Kerala. Dr Daniel Babu Paul, former Additional Chief Secretary and scholar of Christian literature, said that Ramban worked hard at the translation, as he had no model before him to follow, saying, “Four Gospels translated by the Ramban made up the first version of the Bible, which appeared in book format in Malayalam. The translation was completed in 1811 and printed in ‘Kallachu’ (lithographic printing) at a press in Bombay (now Mumbai)”.

The book, composed in a hybrid language of Malayalam and Tamil, was entitled Visudha Veda Pustakam. For many years, believers called it the Ramban Bible. Historians said that translations of the Bible into Tamil and Bengali came out before the Malayalam version appeared. It took two more decades after the appearance of the Ramban Bible for speakers of Malayalam to get a more complete version of the scripture. Dr Paul said that missionary-scholarBenjamin Bailey produced another Malayalam version of the Bible in the 1840s with the help of Chandu Menon, a tahsildar in the Madras Presidencyservice. Herman Gundert, a German scholar, who compiled the first lexicon in Malayalam, translated the New Testament in the 1850s.Dr Paul, author of a comprehensive work on Biblical literature, said, “One major difficulty in translating the Bible in the earlier centuries was the absence of an accepted prose literary form in Malayalam. People of various communities used to speak varying dialects in different places. There was a deep influence of Tamil in the early translations”. A book containing a collection of studies regarding the contribution of Ramban, edited by M. Kurian Thomas and titled Kayamkulam Philipose Remban: Vayakthium Sambhavanaum, will be released by Perumbadavam Sreedharan, Chairman, Kerala Sahithya Akademi,at VJT Hall inThiruvananthapuram.The Adoor-Kadamabanad diocese of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church celebrated the bicentenary of the first translation of the Bible from Syriac to Malayalam by Kayamkulam Philipose Ramban at a ceremonial function at St. Thomas Orthodox Cathedral at Kannankode, near Adoor, .Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan inaugurated the celebrations, jointly organised by the parish and the Adoor-Kadambanad diocese.

Prof. John Kurakar