The New Jerusalem church as it stood in Ziegenbalg's time.
Tranquebar
Mission
Tranquebar
Mission? What is that? Never heard of it! Yes, not many would have heard of it.
It is actually Tarangambadi, a small place near today’s Karaikal, a coastal
city in the Union Territory of Puducherry (formerly Pondicherry) on the
Coromandel coast. On this coast landed two German missionaries, Bartholomew
Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Pluetschau, in AD 1706, some 300 years back, to spread
the good news of the gospel of Christ, the first ever Protestant Mission in
India. As they were not able to, as usual, pronounce a difficult Indian name,
they simply called it Tranquebar, which their tongue could manage! I have
studied about this mission in my pre-PhD studies at SAIACS and recently my
sister-in-law Nirmala had visited the place with her church members as a group.
This kindled my interest. After my sojourn to Malabar coast of Kerala, to study
the seven churches planted by the direct disciple of Jesus Christ, who had come
there in AD 52, I wanted to go and visit Tranquebar and study the history and
renown of that place. So, I hopped onto a plane from Bangalore to Tiruchirappalli
(Thiruchi for short), and got onto a cab and drove straight to Tranquebar aka
Tarangambadi.
How this
mission happened to be established here is an interesting story. It happened
like this. In 18th century European powers were vying with each
other to establish ports of trade around Indian coastal area. Though the
Portuguese were the first to come to India, and had a roaring trade in pepper
in and around Kerala coast, with Goa as their fortress and port, their power
soon waned and other European powers like the British, Dutch, French and Danes competed
for the space. Portuguese and French were Catholic powers and the others, the
British, Dutch and the Danes were Protestant Christians. Though all these
powers brought their own chaplains for the benefit of their own staff and
families, they never really thought about spreading Christianity in India. They
were too preoccupied with their own internal squabbling and competitions in
trade.
Strangely,
the first person who conceived the idea of sending missionaries to India was
King Frederick IV of Denmark (1671-1730). He was a Lutheran (after Martin
Luther of Reformation fame). He directed his chaplain to find some suitable
candidates for the purpose of sending missionaries to India, and as there were
none in Denmark, they turned to Germany, where a revival movement called
Pietism had started (Individual piety and commitment to Christ were stressed in
this movement) and was on. Professor A.H. Francke was one of the leaders of the
Pietist movement and was working in the University of Halle in Germany. Two
students, studying under him, volunteered to go and they were taken to Denmark,
ordained as Lutheran pastors in Copenhagen, Denmark, against much protest by
the local Lutheran ministers and sent as ‘royal missionaries,’ at the personal
expense of the King to India. Thus arrived Ziegenbalg and Pluetschau at
Tarangambadi on 9th July 1706 and the Tranquebar mission started.
The first Protestant mission to start in India was a result of a combination of
German Pietist Lutherans sponsored by a King of Denmark, also a Lutheran!
Not that things
went on smoothly as they arrived on Indian shores to the settlement Of Danish
East India Company. Danes had just two settlements in India, both famous today,
one in Tranquebar (1620) and the other in Serampore (1676) in Bengal area near
Calcutta. As the authorities at the Danish Fort had not been properly informed,
no welcome awaited them. After three days in the ship, they were given
permission to land and they presented their credential to the Danish
Commandant, who was not happy at all to receive them, but grudgingly gave them
permission to settle in their area. The official party took them to the market
place and deserted them there. They were left standing there with their bags
and hats and all. A junior officer took pity on them and took them to his wife’s
parent’s place, who in a few days’ time found them a house in the Portuguese (Eurasian)
quarters. And they settled down.
Both the
missionaries started sincerely to study the then local official language
Portuguese and the language of the people Tamil. As Ziegenbalg progressed
rapidly in learning Tamil, Pluetschau was assigned to cater to the Portuguese
speaking Europeans and Ziegenbalg was to concentrate on Tamil speaking local
population. They started an orphanage for orphan children and their first
converts were mostly domestic servants of the Europeans. A Portuguese and a
Tamil school were started. Ziegenbalg learnt Tamil quickly and as a European speaking
Tamil, he attracted quite a crowd around him. He started to preach to the local
Hindus in Tamil, discussed Christ and Christianity with them and also talked
with them about their own religion, Hinduism. A little congregation gathered
and by August 1707 a small mission church was built outside the fort. Five
local people who were being taught catechism for a year were baptized in
September of that year.
Ziegenbalg
had the gift of learning the languages, and was very methodical in his
learnings. He used to sit on ground in the local school, with the other
children and practice writing Tamil alphabets in the sand as they did. He had a
punishing schedule for learning Tamil. Morning 7 to 8 am, he will memorize previously
learnt vocabulary; 8 am to 12 noon, with the help of a local teacher he would
learn Tamil literature; 3 to 5 pm he will read a broad variety of Tamil books
on his own to comprehend Tamil grammar, prose and literature; 5 to 7 pm he
would attend to administrative duties and interact with the public; and 7 to 8
pm, to rest his eyes, he would make an assistant to read classical Tamil
literature to him aloud. No wonder he picked up Tamil within six months and
started to write books in Tamil soon thereafter.
Ziegenbalg
translated the New Testament into Tamil in 1711 and it was printed and published
in 1715, in Tranquebar’s printing press that he had established in 1712, the
first ever translation of Christian scripture into an Indian language. The
printing press was a gift from SPCK sent in 1711 but with Latin letters. In
1713 Halle sent a Tamil printing press. Alongside he started the first
paper-mill in 1715 in the nearby Porayar. At the time of his death, he had
translated into Tamil, Old Testament books up to Ruth. He also brought out a
printed Tamil calendar and produced the first Tamil dictionary and Tamil
Grammar Book. He wrote in Tamil the Genealogy of South Indian gods.
The
Commandant of the Danish Fort was quite antagonistic to Ziegenbalg and got him
arrested and put him in solitary confinement in a prison inside the fort for
four months in 1708 on some flimsy grounds. The commandant was later
transferred by the King. Interest in the Mission spread across Europe due to
the published letters of Ziegenbalg. He was the first to start schools for boys
and girls in India, introduced a tailoring unit to improve employment
opportunities for girls. Three more missionaries arrived at Tranquebar in 1709.
They brought large sum of money with them and with it, Ziegenbalg purchased land
outside the fort to develop the Mission. A large house was built to accommodate
all the missionaries, three schools (Tamil, Portuguese and Danish), the printing
press and so on. Mission seemed to flourish. He visited Nagapatam (Nagapattinam)
outside the jurisdiction of Danish company and established other centers.
Ziegenbalg went
to Denmark in 1714 to appraise the King and others of the progress of his work
and toured Germany, during which time he married Dorathea (in 1715). They
reached Tranquebar in 1716. With the money made available in these tours, he
built the first Protestant church “New Jerusalem Church” for the local people
in 1716 at Tranquebar, along with a training school for the teachers and
catechists. The church is still standing today. But trouble was brewing as the
Director of the mission in Copenhagen interfered with the method of
Ziegenbalg’s work. The Director wanted the missionaries to only concentrate on the
spiritual needs of the local population and not buy property and build
churches. And grants were stopped. Deeply distressed, a depressed Ziegenbalg died
on 23.2.1719, at the early age of thirty-six. His death had a sobering effect
in Denmark. The king removed the Director from his office. But it was too late
and the damage was done. Ziegenbalg’s mortal remains were laid in front of the
altar inside the New Jerusalem church, Tranquebar, which he had built, and it
can be seen even today.
Ziegenbalg
and his wife Dorathie had three sons, two of whom died young. The surviving son
later worked as a Professor of Mathematics in in Copenhagen and was director in
a Dutch factory. After her husband’s death, Dorathie married a Danish
Councillor of Danish East India Company in 1720. She returned to Copenhagen in
1721 with her family, but she passed away shortly after in 1722.
But the
Mission itself carried on with its activities. Many more missionaries came from
Halle. Protestant missions were started in the other European stations in South
India, Madras (today’s Chennai), Cuddalore, Negapatam (Nagapattinam) and Trichinopoly
(Trichirapally). First Indian pastor, Aaron was ordained in 1733, and he ministered
until his death in 1745. Many more followed, and fourteen Indian ministers were
ordained by 1741, by the Tranquebar Mission, in and around Tanjore (Tanjavur),
Tirupalatur, and Kumbakonam. An important missionary who came later in 1750 was
Schwartz, who became a close confidant of the Raja of Tanjore (Thanjavur), and
was instrumental in spreading Christianity in Palamcottah (Pallayamkottai) in Tinnevelly
(Thirunalveli) and it went further beyond. German Pietism reached all over the
South India in all the European territories, and touched the local people and
brought the light of Christ to all these areas. It set a pattern for all later
Protestant missions. Even William Carey, the famous missionary of Serampore, who
came in 1792, almost a century after Ziegenbalg, and who translated the Bible
into many Indian languages, had learnt a lesson or two from the Lutheran missionaries
of his time like Schwartz and Gericke of Tranquebar and their methods.
Presently Tranquebar
is run by Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church (TELC), founded in 1919 and its
bishops are still ordained as Bishops of Tranquebar. Presently TELC functions
from Tiruchi as its headquarters and runs some 182 aided schools, orphanages
and old age homes, one art and science college and five hospitals in Tamil
Nadu, Puducherry, Karnataka and Kerala. The 300th anniversary of the
arrival of Danish Halle mission headed by Ziegenbalg (Tranquebar Mission) was
celebrated in a befitting manner in 2006 and a beautiful Memorial has been
erected with his statue and detailed inscriptions at Tarangambadi. His house
has been converted into a museum. No wonder Ziegenbalg is celebrated as the
“Father of Modern Protestant Mission.”
It was my
privilege to visit this small, but historically very important place and learn
about the history of the first Protestant mission in South India. I returned
loaded with gratitude to the way the Holy Spirit had utilized the services of
the two young devoted Pietist Lutheran missionaries in this place some 320
years back to spread the love and concern of Christ. The Holy Spirit that
guided the formation of the first church in the first century AD, which was
active some 320 years back in Tranquebar, we can be sure, is still active in
many parts of the world. Praise be to Him.
No comments:
Post a Comment