The study by Daniel Jeyarai recovers a forgotten aspect of the Tamil cultural heritage within
the ongoing Indo-European intellectual discourse from early eighteenth century. It provides an
English version of the Latin-Tamil Grammar that was printed in Germany in 1716. Bartholomäus
Ziegenbalg (1682-1719) a pioneer in many fields of intercultural study compiled it with the
help of other Tamil grammars written by European and Tamil scholars. It illuminates his
Lutheran piety his acquaintance with the Tamil people in Tranquebar on the Coromandel Coast in
south eastern India and his deep understanding of the colloquial form of Tamil as spoken by
ordinary people. It elevates his pioneer work as a decisive translator and printer of the New
Testament Systematic Theology and Lutheran Catechism in Tamil. Additionally this grammar
helps us to gain penetrating insights into the socio-cultural religious and linguistic fabric
of the Tamil people and the newly emerging Tamil Protestant congregation in Tranquebar. Thus
Jeyarai's survey Tamil Language for Europeans provides an excellent case study for historians
students and practitioners of mission and ecumenism Indologists and scholars of related
Indo-European studies and translators of intercultural texts to explore the transcontinental
role of a grammar in communicating and simultaneously preserving Tamil language culture and
memories beyond its borders.
