Benjamin Bailey (November 1791 in

Dewsbury Dewsbury is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Calder, West Yorkshire, River Calder and on an arm of the Calder and Hebble Navigation waterway. It is to the west of Wakefield, ...

– 3 April 1871 in Sheinton,

Shropshire Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

) was a British

Church Mission Society The Church Mission Society (CMS), formerly known as the Church Missionary Society, is a British Anglican mission society working with Christians around the world. Founded in 1799, CMS has attracted over nine thousand men and women to serve as ...

missionary in Kerala, India for 34 years. He was ordained 1815 and moved to Kerala in 1816 where he found a mission station in

Kottayam Kottayam () is a city in the Kottayam district of Kerala, India. It is the district headquarters of the district and is located about north of the state capital Thiruvananthapuram. As per the 2011 Indian census, Kottayam has a population of ...

, and in 1821 he established a Malayalam printing press. He translated the Bible into

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

, in 1846 published the first English-Malayalam dictionary, and in 1849 published the first Malayalam-English dictionary.

Life

Benjamin Bailey was born in November 1791, as the son of Joseph Bailey and his wife Martha. 1812, two years under Rev. T. Scott for missionary training; one year under J. Buckworth, Vicar of Dewsbury. He was ordained as Deacon on 6 August and as Priest on 17 December 1815, by the Archbishop of York (to the Curacy of Harewood, Yorkshire). In 1816, he married Elizabeth Ella and, on 4 May that year, went to Kottayam, Kerala, India. Benjamin Bailey was the progenitor of printing and book publishing in Malayalam, the native language of Kerala. It was he who established the first printing press (the Kottayam CMS press) and started printing Malayalam in Kerala. He was the first lexicographer in the language. Besides this, he was a well versed author and translator. He compiled a dictionary of the Malayalam language. Benjamin Bailey was also an architect in Gothic style. In 1839–42, he built the Anglican church in Kottayam-the Christ Church- which Bishop Wilson called "the glory of Travancore". The church is now the Cathedral church of the CSI Madhya Kerala Diocese. On 14 May 1831 Benjamin Bailey went to England on furlough and returned to India on 15 July 1834. On 13 March 1850 he departed to England and retired owing to failure of health. From 1856 until his death he was Rector of Sheinton, Shropshire and in 1857 appointed Honorary Life Governor of the CMS. He was Rural Dean of Condover, Salop (in which Rural Deanery area his parish lay) from 1862 to his death. He died suddenly at Sheinton on 3 April 1871, aged 79.

Malayalam language printing

Benjamin Bailey was the founder of both Malayalam printing and book publishing. The

C.M.S. Press C.M.S Press was the first printing press in Kerala. It was established in 1821 by Rev. Benjamin Baily, a British missionary, at kottayam College, also known as 'Syrian College'. The college was a seat of English general education in the State of ...

he established in 1821 at Kottayam was not only the first Malayalam printing office but also the first book publishing house. CMS Press undertook printing works in the languages of Malayalam, English,

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

and Syriac-simply, CMS Press was the first polyglot printing office in Kerala. Printing led to the publishing of books and periodicals. He translated the New Testament from Greek into Malayalam.

Gallery

File:Benjamin Bailey Museum, Kottayam.jpg, Benjamin Bailey Museum, Kottayam File:Benjamin_Bailey_Hall,_Kottayam.jpg, Benjamin Bailey Hall, Kottayam. Memorial for Bailey File:Holy Trinity Cathedral, Kottayam - west door.jpg, The west door of Holy Trinity Cathedral which mentions Bailey laid the foundation stone in 1839 File:C.M.S. Press, Kottayam.jpg, C.M.S. Press File:Bailey Bhavan.jpg, Bailey Bhavan, Kottayam

References

External links

some photos of the CMS Press he startedBenjamin Bailey Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bailey, Benjamin Translators of the Bible into Malayalam Anglican missionaries in India 1871 deaths 1791 births 19th-century British translators English Anglican missionaries Church Mission Society missionaries British missionary linguists

Life

Malayalam language printing

See also

Gallery

References

External links