Tamil Renaissance and Emergence of  Printing technology –  Pioneer of Technical Education in Tamil

Dr. G.Vennila,

Assistant Professor,

PG & Research Department of History,

The Standard Fire works Rajaratnam College for Women, Sivakasi.

Abstract:

Printing machine had its origin in 1440 by Gold Smith and Johannes Gutenberg from Mainz, Germany. He returned to Mainz several years later and by 1450, had a printing machine perfected and ready to use commercially: The Gutenberg press. In Tamilnadu Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg was the pioneer in the setup of a printing press at Madras. It was estabilished in 1578. Parallel to printing efforts by the Protestant missionaries at  Tarangampãdi, the growth of the Jesuit missionary Constanzo Beschi  later called as Veeramamunivar was equally significant in revolutionizing the face of Tamil print and literature. Due to the emergence of printing press many tamil literatures from plam leaf manuscript copied in printed form. This technological transformation was the pioneer of all technical.

Key words:  Kadatas, Manuscript, Palm Leaf, Printing, Tranquebar

Art of Writing:

The process of writing started when letters, words and figures were drawn on sand or on a spread of grain. As time passed, other media came to be used. Blackboards with white chalk or white wooden boards with pieces of charcoal became common modes for expressing the written word. Kadatas or patas were used in religious institutions. These were made of a thick, coarse board or cloth plastered with the paste of tamarind seeds and other glues and finally painted black. The finished object was like a rolling blackboard on which details were entered meticulously with the help of a special chalk. Many religious institutions, like the matha of Sringeri, still boast of such ancient  kadatas. These kadatas contain documents, accounts and housekeeping details, along with copies of royal grants, and declarations by royal preceptors and the pontiffs of the mathas.

Leaf-books:

Palm leaves were first cut from the trees before they could dry up and become brittle. These were then boiled in water to the required temperature in order to render them soft. The softened leaves were then dried in the shade or mild sunshine. The desired portion was taken from mid-leaf, pressed and then polished. These were then cut into the required size and made into rolls of paper. Tālapatras or palm leaves of slightly yellow hew, eight angulas (inches) long, which were more brittle and hence cheaper, were given to students for copy work. The leaves of shritāla were a slight red in color and were 24 to 32 angulas in length. These were quite thin, soft and malleable. Such leaves were supplied to poets, scholars and writers.

There were professional palm-leaf paper-makers (ôleya  kāyakadavaru) who prepared ready-to-write ôles or palm-leaves, and supplied them to mathas ,  basadis, temple schools and private individuals. These were sold in rolls ( kāttu) in village shanties as well. Specially prepared preservative oil was applied to palm-leaf rolls before tying them into a book. Turmeric was often used to make the rolls colorful. Holes were made in the margins of these leaves, through which silken thread was passed and the leaves were carefully tied, and finally the book was ready!

Even the art of writing on these leaves is unique to India, and no ink or pen was required. A  kanta or  thick metal needle with a sharp point was used to inscribe or engrave letters on palm-leaves. These kantas used to come in various sizes. Students were given plain ones, whereas scholars were presented with bejeweled kantas  The kanta was to be held in proper position and the right pressure was to be applied, so that the leaf would not be torn. It is likely that youngsters destroyed many leaves in the process of learning how to properly handle the  kanta. Good handwriting, being universally appreciated, inspired great effort in the development of clear, readable handwriting. Students were required to sit in a comfortable posture and inscribe diligently whatever the guru dictated. Just as in schools everywhere there were those students who were in a hurry to complete the ritual of writing and reading as well!

When the writing or copying of a manuscript was completed, wooden folders were placed above and below it, so that the leaves would not get crumpled or damaged. Thin boards were used for this purpose. These wooden holders were cut to the required size, were sometimes big and sometimes small, and often artistically decorated with floral designs and figures just like the palm leaves they contained, which in turn had borders of floral designs. (The manufacture of wooden holders, wooden boxes and cane baskets to store these manuscripts and books created an ancillary industry). The wooden holders were polished with insecticide oils prepared from lacquer and minerals. Drawings and pictures on the cover board were based on the contents of the book.

After inscribing the letters on the leaves, coal powder was applied, so that the letters were more conspicuous and therefore read more easily. Since correction or overwriting were impossible, great attention was required to make each leaf error-free. The holes made in the corner to tie the leaves got bigger with frequent use and therefore a sufficiently large margin had to be provided.

Good copyists were in great demand. Poets kept ôles and kantas ready all the time, so that they could scribble down ideas and phrases whenever these struck. If the writer and scholar had an indifferent hand, he could avail the help of scribes trained for the purpose. Copyists took their job seriously and started by inscribing the name of their personal god ( ishtadevatā) on the first leaf, prayed and only then started copying. Copyists moved from place to place with their rolls of palm leaves,  kantas, and caskets of coal powder. People could at once recognize them on the streets and accorded a warm welcome. The copyists used small stools on which to place the leaves, squatted for hours, and diligently wrote on palm-pages one after the other until the assignment was complete. Various designs were drawn in the vacant space, if a particular leaf was half-complete. Trained writers used compasses to draw circles and semicircles to create accurate designs Books of smritis (code),  purānas, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and the Bhagavata were given away to scholars for the purpose of reading out and interpreting in public  discourses.

Tamil renaissance:

Tamil renaissance which had its cultural beginnings in the discovery and the subsequent editing and printing of the Tamil classics of the Sangam period. These had existed earlier only as palm leaf manuscripts. Arumuga Navalar in Jaffna, in the island of Sri Lanka, published the Thirukural in 1860 and Thirukovaiyar in 1861. Thamotherampillai, who was born in Jaffna but who served in Madras, published the grammatical treatise Tolkapiyam by collating material from several original ola leaf manuscripts.

It was on the foundations laid by Arumuga Navalar and Thamotherampillai that Swaminatha Aiyar, who was born in Tanjore, in South India, put together the classics of Tamil literature of the Sangam period. Swaminatha Aiyar spent a lifetime researching and collecting many of the palm leaf manuscripts of the classical period and it is to him that we owe the publication of Cilapathikaram, Manimekali, Puranuru, Civakachintamani and many other treatises which are a part of the rich literary heritage of the Tamil people.

Tamil from Jaffna, Kanagasabaipillai served at Madras University and his book ‘Tamils – Eighteen Hundred Years Ago’ reinforced the historical togetherness of the Tamil people and was a valuable source book for researchers in Tamil studies in the succeeding years. It was a Tamil cultural renaissance in which the contributions of the scholars of Jaffna and those of South India are difficult to separate not surprisingly, it was a renaissance which was also linked with a revived interest in Saivism and a growing recognition that Saivaism was the original religion of the Tamil people. Arumuga Navalar established schools in Jaffna, in Sri Lanka and in Chidambaram, in South India and his work led to the formation of the Saiva Paripalana Sabai in Jaffna in 1888, the publication of the Jaffna Hindu Organ in 1889 and the founding of the Jaffna Hindu College in 1890.

In South India, J.M.Nallaswami Pillai, who was born in Trichinopoly, published Meykandar’s Sivajnana Bodham in English in 1895 and in 1897, he started a monthly called Siddhanta Deepika which was regarded by many as reflecting the 19th century ‘ renaissance of Saivaism’. A Tamil version of the journal was edited by Maraimalai Atikal whose writings gave a new sense of cohesion to the Tamil people – a cohesion which was derived from the rediscovery of their ancient literature and the rediscovery of their ancient religion.

Tamil printing press:

On June 29, 1713, a wooden printing press from Halle-Orphan House that could print the Tamil fonts reached Tranquebar and was put into operation. The printing of the first copy of the New Testament in Tamil was completed in 1715 at Tranquebar.

Though printing technology came to India with the arrival of Portuguese at Goa in the middle of the 16th Century, it found resurgence in the early 18th Century at Tharangambadi, a coastal town in the present-day Mayiladuthurai district, with the arrival of the Danish -Halle Mission. To have the presence of the Lutheran priests to render religious services in Danish settlements, King Frederick IV of Denmark, in 1705, invited the Pietists from Halle in eastern Germany to send priests to Tranquebar. Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg, a student of theological studies at the University of Halle in Germany, joined the Danish-Halle Mission for Tranquebar and arrived at the town by sea on July 9, 1706. This marked the arrival of the first Protestant missionary to India.

Role of Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg:

Tharangambadi, called Tranquebar by the Danes, came under the rule of the Danish East India Company, which obtained the piece of territory from Raghunatha Nayak, the Raja of Tanjore, in 1620. Soon after landing on the coast, Ziegenbalg found the need to learn Tamil to interact with the local population. Tranquebar was a thriving seaport and commercial town that had the presence of Danes, Dutch, Portuguese, and Germans, besides Tamil-speaking natives. Calling him a born linguist, Samuel Manuel, director of the centuries-old Ziegenblag Museum, said Ziegenblag was able to learn Tamil within three months from a multilingual scholar named

Azhagappan, who taught him the Tamil alphabets by writing them on sand near the beach. In 1708, he took up the task of translating the New Testament of the Bible into Tamil. He completed it after three years of laborious work.

In 1709, Ziegenbalg wrote a letter to the Denmark King, which was forwarded to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) in London, seeking a printing press. In 1712, SPCK sent a printing press to Tranquebar for printing in European languages. However, Ziegenbalg thought that the mission would succeed only if it could publish books and other literary works in Tamil. He forwarded the drawings of Tamil alphabets to Halle, requesting to create Tamil typefaces.

On June 29, 1713, another wooden printing press from Halle-Orphan House that could print the Tamil fonts reached Tranquebar and was put into operation. This marked the revival of the Tamil printing press. The printing of the first copy of the New Testament in Tamil was completed in 1715 at Tranquebar. Apart from the Christian literature, Ziegenbalg published grammar and textbooks, religious texts of Hinduism and translated Tamil books, including Ulaga Needhi (Universal Justice), into German. The wooden printing press used by Ziegenbalg was damaged a few decades after his death, said Mr. Manuel, who added that a donor from Chennai donated a replica of the machine from Clymer and Dixon Columbian Iron Eagle Press. This is on display at the museum. Recently, the museum, run by Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church (TELC) on the premises of the higher secondary school on Admiral Street at Tharangambadi got a facelift. It showcases the contribution of the pioneer to the revival of the Tamil printing. Ziegenbalg also went on to start a boarding school for girls and taught them vocational subjects, including tailoring. Later, boys were also admitted to the school, which is now under the administration of the TELC. In 1719, Ziegenbalg died at the age of 36 at Tranquebar. He was buried at the New Jerusalem Church on the King’s Street. The church, which he had built a year before his demise by incorporating the German architectural style, testifies to his legacy in the Tamil landscape.

Though there were several newspapers, there was not one in Tamil to serve the needs of the vast Tamil speaking people. G. Subramania Iyer understood this situation and therefore established the first newspaper in Tamil the Swadesamitran. He published The Hindu and the Swadesamitran till 1898. After leaving The Hindu, he devoted himself to the Swadesamitran  and converted it into a daily in 1899. As the principal Tamil  daily till 1911, the Swadesamitran enjoyed popularity among  the people of Tamil Nadu. A printing press on display at Ziegenbalg House at Tharangambadi.

References:

Ambrose Jeyasekaran.t      –        “ Education policies of protestant Christian Missions  in South India till the end of Ninteenth century”,

All India Association for Christian higher education,New Delhi.

Anathnath Basu                      –         “Education in South India” New era publication,Madras,

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