Luther's Works in Tamil

Abstract

Abstract:This essay discusses the translations of Luther's writings into the Tamil language spoken in parts of India and other Asian nations. The primary sources come from the Archives and Mission Library of the Francke Foundations (Frankesche Stiftungen) in Halle, Germany. The first German Lutheran missionaries, sent by the King of Denmark, arrived in Tranquebar, India in 1706. Local people helped them learn the spoken form of Tamil. The first Luther document in Tamil was printed in 1713, a Summary of his Small Catechism. The Catechism has been the central Luther document printed in Tamil ever since. In the 1990s, Lutherans recruited a group of translators and have since translated the three great treatises of 1520 and several other important documents from the 1520s and 1530s.