suzmccarth wrote:

>
> --- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, "Peter T. Daniels"
> <grammatim@...> wrote:
>
> > I thought printing came to most of India with the Brits.
>
> "TAMIL types had been used to print Doctrina Christam in
> Coolegio do Saluador at Cochin in 1578. Some years earlier in
> Lisbon, a Cartilha, or Christian Catichism, had been
> translitereated and printed in 1554. Those are known facts. The
> interest in this discussion is the influence of the printed Tamil
> language books from Madras shops-and not the history of
> printing or of printed books. "

Even to the most ardent Tamil chauvinist, Tamil Nadu is not "most of
India."

> http://www.intamm.com/l-science/smith.htm
>
> I found a reference on this page
>
> http://www.colonialvoyage.com/biblioP.html
>
> to the first Tamil book printed in India in 1578. It also includes
> references to Tamil books printed about the same time in
> Portugal. I think Francis Xavier spent some time in India or Sri
> Lanka as well.
>
> Then there is the work of Athanasius Kircher, also a Jesuit,
> 1650's, - it looks like he had a font for devanangari. I am a little

This is the first indication I've had that Kircher visited India ...

> fuzzy on this so I will just mention one more name as another
> good lead. Constantine Beschi, a Portuguese Jesuit,
> standardized the Tamil writing system in the early 1700's. He
> brought the pulli back into use and by using a long vowel marker
> added two more rows to the syllabary.
>
> I have just picked up a few leads so far.
>
> Found it! This link says that the Jesuits started the first printing
> press in India in 1556. My distinct impression is that they were
> not printing the roman alphabet because these things are
> always refered to as 'contributions' to India or Tamil literature or
> whatever.
>
> http://www.goethals.org/jesuitssn.htm

--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@...