WikiPortallus: Robert Caldwell.html

Bishop Robert Caldwell (1814 -1891) was an orientalist who pioneered the study of the Dravidian languages with his work Comparative Grammar of Dravidian Languages (1856; revised edition 1875).

Early life

Robert Caldwell was born on May 7,1814 to Scottish parents. Initially self-taught and religious, young Caldwell graduated from the university of Glasgow and was fascinated by the comparative study of languages. At 24, Caldwell arrived in Madras on January 8, 1838 as a missionary of the London Missionary Society and later joined the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Mission (SPG). Caldwell was married in 1844 to Eliza Mault (1822-99), by whom he had seven children. She was the elder daughter of the veteran Travancore missionary, Reverend Charles Mault (1791-1858) of the London Missionary Society. For more than forty years, Eliza worked in Travancore and Tirunelveli in the cause of female education and the empowerment of women in India.¹ Caldwell realised that he had to be proficient in Tamil to preach to the masses and he began a systematic study of the language.

Classification of Dravidian languages

Archeological research

Caldwell served as the Bishop of Tirunelveli (along with Bishop Sargent) and did much original research on the history of Tirunelveli. He studied palm leaf manuscripts and Sangam literature in his search, and made several excavations, finding the foundations of ancient buildings, sepulchral urns and coins with the fish emblem of the Pandyan Kingdom.⁴ This work resulted in his book A Political and General History of the District of Tinnevely (1881), published by the Government of the Madras Presidency. According to Robert Eric Frykenberg, this

Caldwell’s mission lasted more than fifty years. The publication of his research into both the languages and the history of the region, coupled with his position in both Indian and English society, gave stimulus to the growth of the Non-Brahmin movement.⁶

Meanwhile, on difficult ground for evangelism, Caldwell achieved Christian conversion among the lower castes. He had adopted some of the methods of the Lutheran missionaries of earlier times, having learned German purely in order to study their practices.⁷

In summary, Caldwell the Tamil language scholar, Christian evangelist and champion of the native church,⁸ remains today an important figure in the modern history of South India. He is still remembered there, and his statue, erected eighty years after his death, stands on the Marina Beach at Chennai.⁹ The Indian historian Dr M.S.S. Pandian, Visiting Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in Delhi, recently commented that Caldwell’s "contribution to both Christianity in South India and the cultural awakening of the region is unmatched during the last two hundred years".¹⁰

Criticism

Charles E. Gover, in his book, The Folk Songs of South India heaps criticism on Caldwell and exposes some glaring mistakes in his deductions. Gover, in particular, refutes Caldwell's theory that Tamils are a Turanian people. ¹¹ He says that recent researches conducted by German writers have proved this theory wrong. ¹¹ He also wrote that how most of the Tamil words, which Caldwell, in his book, asserts to be of Scythian origin, had Indo-Aryan roots.¹² He gives the example of the Dravidian root pe- from which the Tamil word Pey meaning "devil" is derived,¹³ which Caldwell proclaims to be independent of Sanskrit, and shows how it is related to the Sanskrit pisacha.¹⁴

Even while acknowledging that Sanskrit was never a spoken language and that Brahmins in different parts of India spoke the local vernacular,¹⁵Caldwell asserts at another place that all Brahmins descended from the same racial stock which spoke Sanskrit.¹⁶Throughout his book Comparitive Study of the South Indian or Dravidian family of Languages, Caldwell accusses Brahmins of spreading lies and of not practising what they preach.¹⁷

Notes

^ Kumaradoss, Robert Caldwell, pp. 59-60, 112, 117-131, 279.
^ Y. Vincent Kumaradoss, Robert Caldwell: A Scholar-Missionary in Colonial South India, Delhi: ISPCK, 2007, pp. 148-49.
^ Thomas Trautmann, 'Inventing the History of South India', in David Ali (ed.), Invoking the Past: The Uses of History in South Asia, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 41. Also cited in Kumaradoss, Robert Caldwell, p. 147.
^ Kumaradoss, Robert Caldwell, p. 157. See also D. Sugantharaj, Man of Vision, Sunday Standard, 1968.
^ Robert Eric Frykenberg, Robert Caldwell, cited in Kumaradoss, Robert Caldwell, p. 156, note 58.
^ Kumaradoss, Robert Caldwell, p. 280.
^ Kumaradoss, Robert Caldwell, p. 23. See also J.L. Wyatt (ed.), Reminiscences of Bishop Caldwell, Madras: Addison & Co, 1894, p.149.
^ Kumaradoss, Robert Caldwell, pp. 277-278.
^ Kumaradoss, Robert Caldwell, p. 281.
^ Dr M.S.S. Pandian, cited on back cover of Kumaradoss, Robert Caldwell.
^ ^a ^b Folk Songs of Southern India, Introduction, Pg vi
^ Folk Songs of Southern India, Introduction, Pg vii
^ Folk Songs of Southern India, Introduction, Pg xi
^ Folk Songs of Southern India, Introduction, Pg xiii
^ Niyogi, Chandreyee (1871). Reorienting Orientalism. Madras: SAGE, 231. ISBN 0761934472, ISBN 9780761934479.
^ Niyogi, Chandreyee (2006). Reorienting Orientalism. Madras: SAGE, 232. ISBN 0761934472, ISBN 9780761934479.
^ B. Dirks, Nicholas (2003). Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India. Orient Blackswan, 137. ISBN 8178240726, ISBN 9788178240725.

Robert Caldwell.html

Contents

Early life

Classification of Dravidian languages

Archeological research

Criticism

Notes

References