Christoph Theodosius Walther (20 December 1699 – 29 April 1741) was a German Lutheran missionary who worked in the Danish Halle Mission in

Tranquebar Tharangambadi (), formerly Tranquebar (, ), is a town in the Mayiladuthurai district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu on the Coromandel Coast. It lies north of Karaikal, near the mouth of a distributary named Uppanar of the Kaveri River. It wa ...

, southern India where he took an interest in the

Tamil language Tamil (, , , also written as ''Tamizhil'' according to linguistic pronunciation) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. It is one of the longest-surviving classical languages in the world,. "Tamil is one of ...

and the local plants. Walther was born in Shildberg near Soldin in West Pomerania in a family of protestant preachers. He was educated at Schönfliess and Königsberg in Neumark before going to

Stargard Stargard (; 1945: ''Starogród'', 1950–2016: ''Stargard Szczeciński''; or ''Stargard an der Ihna''; ) is a city in northwestern Poland, located in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship. In 2021 it was inhabited by 67,293 people. It is situated on ...

, Pomerania in 1715. He studied at the Gröningisches Collegium where he studied under Christian Schöttgen (1687–1751). He joined the Halle orphanage in 1720. He went to Tranquebar as part of the Danish Halle Mission leaving Halle on December 8, 1724 to Rotterdam, and then to London where he met members of the

Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) is a United Kingdom, UK-based Christians, Christian charity. Founded in 1698 by Thomas Bray, it has worked for over 300 years to increase awareness of the Christians, Christian faith in the Un ...

. They left on February 15, 1725 and reached Tranquebar on June 19, 1725. Walther learned Portuguese and later began to study Tamil. He gave himself the Tamil name of ''Njanaawâlutâr'' or "strengthener of knowledge". He married Anna Christina Brochmann, daughter of a Danish administrator on December 21, 1728. She died in 1735 following childbirth. In 1739–1740 he returned to Europe and went to Halle and died at Dresden. While posted in Tranquebar, he undertook a project to document the plants of the region and began the ''Herbarium Trangambariense'' (1743) collecting Tamil names and documenting the usage of plants.

References

External links

* Robin Pac
Christoph Theodosius Walther (1699–1741). Njanaawâlutâr – Leben und letzte Stunden eines dänischen Missionars in Tranquebar, in: Leben in Leichenpredigten 10/2012
(in German)
Circulation of Scientific Knowledge
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walther, Christoph Theodosius 1741 deaths 1699 births German Lutheran missionaries Lutheran missionaries in India 18th-century German Lutheran clergy