Cherupaithangal (

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 ...

: ചെറുപൈതങ്ങൾ. Full title: ചെറുപൈതങ്ങൾക്ക ഉപകാരാർത്ഥം ഇംക്ലീശിൽനിന്ന പരിഭാഷപ്പെടുത്തിയ കഥകൾ) is the first

book ever to be printed in Kerala. It is not the Malayalam book ever to be printed. The first Malayalam book ever to be printed is ''Samkṣepavedārththham'' authored by Clemente Peani and printed in Rome in 1772. ''Cherupaithangal'' is a collection of seven stories for children translated from English by the British

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

Benjamin Bailey and printed in C. M. S. Press,

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 ...

in 1824. It is also the first book in Malayalam that could be categorized as

children's literature Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

. The existence of this book was long forgotten and, in modern times, it was brought to public awareness by George Irumbayam, an Indian literary critic and literature researcher, in June 2024. The digital version of the book was made publicly available by

Kerala Sahitya Akademi The Kerala Sahitya Akademi or Academy for Malayalam Literature is an autonomous body established to promote the Malayalam language and Malayalam literature, literature. It is situated in the city of Thrissur, Kerala in India. History The acad ...

on 8 February 2014.

The seven stories

The following are rough English translations of the titles of the seven stories in the book. # The story of a four year old girl named Marjari from England (എംഗലാന്തിൽമാൎജ്ജരിഎന്നപെരായിനാല വയസ്സചെന്ന ഒരു പെൺപൈതലിന്റെ കഥാ) # The story of a knowledgeable child (ജ്ഞാനിപൈതലിന്റെ കഥാ) # The story of lamps (ആട്ടിൻകുട്ടികളുടെ കഥാ) # The story of fortitude in adversity (വിപദി ധൈൎയ്യം ഒരു കഥാ) # The story of George and his wheel (ജൊൎജ്ജിന്റെയുംഅവന്റെചക്രത്തിന്റെയും കഥാ) # History of King Edward VI (എഡ്വാൎഡ എന്ന പെർഉളവായരാജാക്കന്മാരിൽ ആറാമവന്റെ ചരിതം) # The meaning of mental strength (മനസ്സുറപ്പിന്റെ സംഗതി) # The story of Theophilus and Savio (തെയൊഫിലുസിന്റെയും സൊവ്യായുടെയും കഥാ)

Full text

The full text of the book is available for free download in

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

at the lin
''Cherupaithangal''

References

{{Kerala topics Malayalam-language literature Malayalam language

The seven stories

Full text

See also

References