Kerala is all set to celebrate from tomorrow the bicentenary of 19th century German missionary and scholar, Hermann Gundert, who left a deep impression in the cultural history of the state by bringing out the first lexicon and journal in Malayalam.
Gundert, who lived in Basel Evangelic Mission outpost in the sylvan hamlet of Illikkunnu near this colonial era coastal town, also produced several works on diverse subjects like literature, geography, culture, history and religion.
The scholar was born in Stuttgart in Germany on February 4, 1814 and devoted a major part of his life to document words and expressions of Malayalam and cultural and linguistic history of the region. He lived in Kerala for 20 years till 1859.
Besides the Gundert Foundation and local cultural forums, Malayalam, German and Linguistics departments of various colleges and universities will also organise events as a tribute to the scholar.
According to Gundert scholars, the missionary had an innate desire since childhood to travel to unknown places and learn the languages and cultures. He arrived in the south western coast of India in 1836 as part of his missionary work.
After spending his initial years in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh in India, he moved to Thalassery (known as Tellicherry then.
Leading historian M G S Narayanan said modern Malayalam, especially its prose, owe a great deal to Gundert's works.
"Gundert arrived in Kerala to propagate Christianity. But he imbibed the innate cultural values of India and Kerala soon and became an ardent admirer of them. In course of time, he became a true Malayalee by all means than any other native man here," Narayanan told PTI.
"His love for the land and language made him travel across the state and collect as much as document he could about the language. He also tried to learn Malayalam from people, places and books," he said.
Gundert, who had already acquired exceptional command over German, Latin, Greek and Hebrew as a teen, learnt south Indian languages like Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Tulu and Malayalam during his stay in India to help his missionary work.
Later, he devoted greater attention to the study of Malayalam and its ancient history. His learning of Sanskrit under local scholars of the time made his effort easier.
