What’s  in News:

• The copy of what is touted as the first Tamil translation of the Bible, which was reportedly stolen from Saraswathi Mahal Library, Thanjavur,  has been traced by Idol Wing CID Police to London.
• The first Tamil translation of the New Testament was printed in 1715 by Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg, Danish, a missionary.
• It was presented to Tulaji Rajah Serfoji (of Tanjore)by Schwartz, another missionary and a close friend of the King.
• After the takeover by the Tamil Nadu government, the antiquarian book became an exhibit in the Saraswati Mahal Museum for public viewing.

How the book reached Serfojis

• Danish missionary Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg was born in Saxony in 1682.
• He studied at the University of Balle, then the centre for the Pietistic movement in the Lutheran Church. Responding to an appeal from the King of Denmark for missionaries. In September 1706, he and Heinrich Plueshau arrived in Tranquebar (Tharangambadi), a tiny Danish colony on the east coast, close to Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu, on the southeast coast of India, as the first Protestant missionaries in that country.
• He soon set up a printing press and published studies of the Tamil language and Indian religion and culture.

Reference:

1. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/first-copy-of-tamil-bible-stolen-from-saraswathi-mahal-library-traced-to-london/article65588973.ece