Early Vepery (Chennai) Indian Printing - 1789 - A Grammar for learning the principles of the Malabar Language - Tamil

A Grammar for learning the principles of the Malabar Language - Tamil - By the English Missionaries of Madras - Printed at Vepery near Madras - The Second Edition in the Year of our Lord 1789

“A glow-worm can not glitter in sunshine”

“Poison will not leave a snake - ‘tho one feed it with milk”

“One man will keep a secret, but if two know it, the whole kingdom will know it”

These Tamil proverbs come from this very early Grammar of the “malabar”, or Tamil Language.

Collation: [3],TP in facsimile, 3-64, [38]

Complete text but the title page is in facsimile. With a total of 41 leaves of mid 19th century notes made by a missionary to alphabetically record Tamil Biblical words.

19th Century half calf. Old smell of smoke to book. Printed in Madras (Chennai) in 1789 at the Vepery Mission Press, it is one of the earliest English books printed by missionaries in Chennai. The book was used by the English missionaries of Madras to teach themselves the local language of “low” Tamil.

Only around 10 copies of this book are recorded, so it is a rare survivor from an early Indian Printing Press 🇮🇳