Bible translations into Malayalam

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Translations of the Bible into Malayalam began from 1806, and have been to some extent influential on the development of the modern language.[1]

History

The first attempt to translate bible into Malayalam was done by Kayamkulam Philipose Ramban with the support of Mor Dionatius the Great and Rev. Claudius Buchanan. Rev. Claudius Buchanan, a missionary who visited Kerala in the early 19th century, persuaded church leaders to translate the holy text into Malayalam and gave guidance to local scholars. At that time Syriac was the liturgical language of Christians in Kerala. Kayamkulam Philippose Ramban who was a Malankara Syrian Christian monk firstly translated few books of Holy Bible from Syriac to Malayalam. He was assisted by Timapah Pillay. Using the Tamil version translated by Johann Philipp Fabricius, they made a Malayalam copy. Bible Society of India (then known as an Auxiliary of the British and Foreign Bible Society) paid for 500 copies to be printed in Bombay in 1811. Timapah completed the New Testament in 1813, but this was found to include vocabulary known only to Syriac Christians and not to the general Malayalam population.[2] Now this Bible is known as Ramban Bible.


After Ramban Bible, it was Benjamin Bailey who continued the effort of translating Bible to Malayalam. He completed New Testament and published it in 1829. Bailey completed the translation of old testament and printed it in 1841. So it was Benjamin Bailey who had translated the entire Bible to Malayalam language.

Hermann Gundert updated Bailey's version and produced the first Malayalam-English dictionary (1872).[3][4][5] Other sources record that a Phillipose Rampan (c. 1780-1850) also translated parts of the Bible into Malayalam.[6]

Modern versions

Protestant

The Bible Society of India Kerala Auxiliary (established 1956) has made minor revisions to the Malayalam Old Version in 1910. A new Malayalam Common Language Bible project is ongoing.

Biblica had translated and published the New India Bible Version (NIBV) in Malayalam which was released in 1997 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

The World Bible Translation Center India provides the Easy-to-Read Version Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

Catholic

In 1967 Kerala Catholic Bishops' Council Pastoral Orientation Center started a new translation of Bible [7] and completed by 1981 - also known as POC Bible.

Syriac Orthodox

The Syriac Orthodox Church uses the Pesitta version as its official bible and hence all the translations that were done within the church where that of the Pesitta.

Ramban Bible

The first bible translation (partial) into Malayalam was done by Kayamkulam Philipose Ramban(Syriac monk) in 1811 under the direction of the then Malankara Metropolitan Mor Dionasius. It was printed at Bombay Courier press with the help of the British missionaries especially Rev. Claudius Buchanan, who visited Kerala in the early 19th century and gave guidance to local scholars for translations. The translation was of the four gospels alone.

Syriac Orthodox Bible Society and Vishudha Grandham

The Syriac Orthodox Bible Society of India published the translation of Syriac Pesitta bible into Malayalam adopting a rather direct translation of the term Holy Bible as Vishuddha Grandham (വിശുദ്ധ ഗ്രന്ഥം). Transilation was done by the Famous syriac scholar Kaniyamparambil Kurian Cor episcopa with the help of some priests. In 2015, this was made available online [www.vishudhagrandham.com]. Vishudha Grandham is the only audio bible available for free use in the Internet. This bible is used as the official Malayalam bible of the Malankara Syriac Orthodox Church.

Jehovah's Witnesses

In 2009, the New Testament of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures was released in Malayalam by Jehovah's Witnesses.[8]

Online versions

The Complete Malayalam Bible in Unicode was published online on 14 August 2004. By Nishad H. Kaippally.

The POC Bible released online [1] and mobile versions for Android [2] and iPhone [3]

Vishuddha Grandham of the Malankara Syriac Orthodox Church was released online in 2015.

Audio version

A free complete audio version of the Syriac Orthodox Peshitta Bible was released online in 2015 [www.vishudhagrandham.com].

Usage of different versions in churches

Nearly all churches in Kerala use Bibles in Malayalam; they differ in which version they were translated from and therefore which books they include.

Anglican,Marthoma, Evangelicals and Pentecostal Churches use the Bible Society of India version.

St. Thomas Christians

The St. Thomas Christians may have used the Peshitta Bible at church services until the sixteenth century conflict and church divisions. Today the different Saint Thomas Christian churches use different Bibles depending on their affiliation. Except for Protestants, all Christians use the "deuterocanonicals", though they vary on which ones they include.

The Peshitta (Syriac Bible) translations by Andumalil Mani Kathanar and Fr. Mathew Uppani (Kottayam, 1997) are popular in the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church.

The Peshitta is also used by the Malankara Syriac Orthodox Church and the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. Peshitta was translated into Malayalam in 1811 partially by Kayamkulam Ramban. A separate translation of the New Testament was done by Konatt Rev. Abraham. A complete translation was made in 1991 by Kurian Corepiscopa of the Malankara Syriac Orthodox Church and was published by the Syriac Orthodox Bible Society of India (SOBSI).

See also

References

  1. ↑ Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature: devraj to jyoti Amaresh Datta, Sahitya Akademi (New Delhi, Inde) - 1988- Page 1660 "The first Malayalam edition of the Bible was published in 1811 [typo 1841], and its first translation was done by Benjamin Bailey in 1829. Modern Malayalam has been to some extent influenced by the Bible. During the latter part of the 19th century, Kerala, ..."
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Dr. Hermann Gundert and Malayalam language Albrecht Frenz, Skar̲iyā Sakkar̲iya - 1993 "5.4.2 Looking back at various early translations of the Bible in Malayalam one may not hesitate to acknowledge the great literary quality of Gundert's translation. He has rendered Hebrew poetry giving consideration to the rhythm of ..."
  4. ↑ Maritime Malabar and the Europeans, 1500-1962 K. S. Mathew, Université de Lyon II. Institut de recherche et d'intervention en sciences humaines - 2003 "On 18 September 1840, Gundert sent the German translation of his first Malayalam Bible tract, Genesis 1-11, to Basle, but for a long time did not get a sanctioning reply from there for printing it. Luckily Gundert had it printed and ..."
  5. ↑ The Encyclopaedia Of Indian Literature (Volume Two) (Devraj To Jyoti): Volume 2 - Page 1660 Amaresh Datta - 2006 "Later, others like Robert Drummond and H. Gundert followed the trend. Gundert's Malayalam bhasha vyakaranam (1851) ... The first Malayalam edition of the Bible was published in 1811,[typo 1841?] and its first translation was done by Benjamin Bailey ..."
  6. ↑ History of Malayalam literature R. Leela Devi - 1977 ... who accompanied Kariattil to Rome wrote the first prose travelogue Varthamana Pusthakam, in malayalam. His kristhyanukaranam is a translation of Imitation of Christ. Phillipose Rampan (1780 - 1850) translated Bible into Malayalam.
  7. ↑ http://www.keralabiblesociety.com/pages/en/POCBible.html
  8. ↑ "WatchTower publications", Watchtower publications Index(1986-2011)

External links

Online Bibles

Bible Societies

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