--- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, "Peter T. Daniels"

> Even to the most ardent Tamil chauvinist, Tamil Nadu is not

"most of

> India."

No, I didn't mean that - but these are just examples of different
Jesuit involvement in printing in India. That is what I meant by
'fuzzy' idea. I am working on it.

> >
> > 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 ...

In monuments of China, he discusses and displays the
Devanagari wrting system at length, how syllables are
composed, the preposed vowel 'i', etc. and in an article i read
about Bangla transliteration, he is credited with the first
transliteration scheme.

"A general form of transcription has for long been used in the
early period of such conversion processes, starting from 1667 to
1894. The earliest example of such transcription is found in a
book called China monumentis by Athanasius Kircher,
published in 1667, which printed a specimen of the Bangla
alphabet, along with corresponding Roman letters. "

http://www.weeklyholiday.net/300802/com.html

When did the British get to india? I should know this but can't
some up with a date offhand.

Suzanne