Indian Christianity

HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA : M. M. NINAN
VOC coins Danish King Christian IV Calvin
The Danish crown actively supported the mission work in their colonies. The small Danish territories on
the subcontinent became centers of education and bookprinting.
The first missionary from Denmark to go to India was Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg, who arrived in
Tranquebar in 1705. Under the Danish Halle Mission, a mission of the Lutheran Church of Danmark
two students Bartholomaes Ziegenbalg and his classmate Heinrich Plutschau reached Tranquebar. Both
learned Tamil quickly and worked at scripture translation. Ziegenbalg completed the Tamil New
Testament in 1711. As the translation was in progress in 1709 he requested a printing press from
Denmark. The Danes forwarded the appeal to London to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
who shipped out a printing press along with type, paper, ink, and a printer in 1712 to Tranquebar. The
New Testament was printed as a result in 1712.
Ziegenbalg writes: “We may remember on this Occasion, how much the Art of Printing contributed to the
Manifestation of divine Truths, and the spreading of Books for that End, at the Time of the happy
Reformation, which we read of in History, with Thanksgiving to Almighty God.” He started the translation
of Old Testament soon after but dies without completing the work. Their work was opposed both by
militant Hindus and by the local Danish authorities. In 1707/08, Ziegenbalg spent four months in prison
on a charge that by converting the natives, he was encouraging rebellion.
Ziegenbalg was a prolific writer, composing works in German, Tamil, Portuguese and Latin which include
dictionaries, hymnbooks, translations both into and out of Tamil, school textbooks, catechisms, sermons,
and book catalogues. Many of these works are extant, in print or manuscript Plutschau returned to
Europe in 1711; Ziegenbalg, after making at least 350 converts in his last year of ministry, died in
Tranquebar in 1719 at the age of thirty-six. Ziegenbalg had many Indological writings which
were not published until a century of later They included Nidiwunpa (Malabari moral
philosophy), Kondei Wenden (Malabari morals,) Ulaga Nidi (Malabari civil justice), and several
books on Hindusim and Islam
Ziegenbalg and his fellow missionaries believed that they needed to share the “new” technologies in
order to spread the good word. In the process, they ensured that the printed word would spread to other
parts of India–Bombay, Bengal, Madras.
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