John Lazarus (1845–1925) was a

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

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 ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

who rendered the

Tirukkural The ''Tirukkuṟaḷ'' (), or shortly the ''Kural'' (), is a classic Tamil language text on commoner's morality consisting of 1,330 short couplets, or Kural (poetic form), kurals, of seven words each. The text is divided into three books wit ...

into

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

. He revised the work of his predecessor William Henry Drew, who had already translated the first 63 chapters (out of the total of 133 chapters) of the Tirukkural, and translated the remaining portion of the Kural text.

Work

John Lazarus completed his graduation from the

University of Madras The University of Madras is a public university, public State university (India), state university in Chennai (Madras), Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1857, it is one of the oldest and most prominent universities in India, incorporated by an ...

. His first work was in 1878 when he published ''Nannul'', a grammatical text, with an English translation meant for students. However, scholars consider his Tirukkural translation of chapters 64 through 133 (furthering the work of William Henry Drew) in 1885 ''A Dictionary of Tamil Proverbs with Introduction, Notes, Texts and Translation'' in 1894 as his greatest contributions to the Tamil literature. His Tirukkural work made him the first person to render into English prose the chapters 64 through 133 of the Kural text. The ''Dictionary of Tamil Proverbs'' contained 10,000 proverbs which remains the most complete collection ever made. Being a Christian missionary, Lazarus, too, like G. U. Pope, initially claimed that

Valluvar Thiruvalluvar commonly known as Valluvar, was a Tamil poet and philosopher. He is best known as the author of the ''Tirukkuṟaḷ'', a collection of couplets on ethics, political and economic matters, and love. The text is considered an exc ...

's ideas were partly influenced by

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

. However, he later denied Pope's claim by saying the Kural portrays no traces of distinctively Christian ideas. None of the ten epithets by which

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

is described in the introductory chapters of the Kural text have the remotest connection with the concept of God as designated in the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

. John Lazarus observes that, in stark contrast to the Bible's concept of killing, which refers only to the taking away of human life, the Kural's concept of killing pertains to both humans and animals as it "deals exclusively with the literal taking away of life".

Kamil Zvelebil Kamil Václav Zvelebil (November 17, 1927 – January 17, 2009) was a Czech scholar in Indian literature and linguistics, notably Tamil, Sanskrit, Dravidian linguistics and literature and philology. Life and career Zvelebil studied at the C ...

endorses this saying that the chapter of the Kural text on "non-killing" (chapter 33) deals exclusively with the literal taking away of life, without ambiguity,''The Tamilian Antiquary'', 1913, Vol II, No. 1. which suggest that the ethics of the Kural is rather a reflection of the Jaina moral code than of

Christian ethics Christian ethics, also known as moral theology, is a multi-faceted ethical system. It is a Virtue ethics, virtue ethic, which focuses on building moral character, and a Deontological ethics, deontological ethic which emphasizes duty according ...

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References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lazarus, John Christian missionaries in India Tamil scholars of non-Tamil background Tamil–English translators Translators of the Tirukkural into English Missionary linguists 1845 births 1925 deaths

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