suzmccarth wrote:

>
> --- 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.

All your examples were of Tamil, no?

> > > 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.

But nothing to do with bringing printing to India!

> "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.

ISTR something about Clive, and 1758, but the East India Company, a
quasi-governmental agency, was much earlier than that.
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@...