https://indianpedia.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Edward_Jewitt_RobinsonEdward Jewitt Robinson - Revision history2026-07-31T06:24:54ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.4https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=Edward_Jewitt_Robinson&diff=129425&oldid=prev>Ser Amantio di Nicolao at 15:50, 22 April 20212021-04-22T15:50:32Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{notability|date=April 2018}}<br />
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}<br />
{{EngvarB|date=August 2020}}<br />
[[File:Tamil Wisdom, by Edward Jewitt Robinson, 1873.jpg|thumb|right|Tamil Wisdom, by Edward Jewitt Robinson, 1873<ref name="TamilWisdom">{{cite book |author= Edward Jewitt Robinson |title=Tamil Wisdom; Traditions Concerning Hindu Sages, and Selections from their writings |url=https://archive.org/details/tamilwisdomtradi00robiuoft |year=1873 |publisher= Wesleyan Conference Office | location=London}}</ref>]]<br />
'''Edward Jewitt Robinson''' was a 19th-century [[Protestant]] [[Christian missionary|missionary]] to [[British India]]. He is best known as one of the earliest translators of the [[Tirukkural]] into [[English language|English]].<br />
<br />
== Biography ==<br />
Edward Jewitt Robinson published a collection of [[Sangam literature|ancient Tamil texts]], including the Tirukkural, translated into English in 1873. The work was titled ''Tamil Wisdom''. Facilitating the evangelical works of the missionaries like [[Constanzo Beschi]], Ziegenbalg, and Percival, Robinson published an enlarged version of the work under the title ''Tales and Poems of South India'' in 1885. In the preface of his second work, he acknowledged the earlier translations by [[Francis Whyte Ellis|F. W. Ellis]], [[William Henry Drew (Christian missionary)|W. H. Drew]], [[Karl Graul]] and [[Charles E. Gover]].<ref name="Manavalan_2010">{{cite book|last1=Manavalan|first1=A. A. |title=A Compendium of ''Tirukkural'' Translations in English (4 vols.) |year=2010|publisher=Central Institute of Classical Tamil|location=Chennai|page=xxi–xxii|isbn=978-81-908000-2-0}}</ref><br />
<br />
Robinson, like other earlier missionaries, translated only the [[Aram (Kural book)|first]] (''Aram'') and [[Porul (Kural book)|second books]] (''Porul'') of the Kural text, translating 108 chapters in verse. He did not translate the [[Inbam (Kural book)|third book]] (''Inbam''). His English contemporaries greatly praised his verse translation, although native scholars of later years, such as [[T. P. Meenakshisundaram]], had some reservations about its fidelity to the original.<ref name="Manavalan_2010"/><br />
<br />
[[G. U. Pope]], in his preface to ''The Sacred Kurral'', felicitated Robinson thus:<ref>{{cite book|last1=Pope|first1=George Uglow|title=The Sacred Kurral of Tiruvalluva Nayanar (with Latin Translation By Fr. Costantino Giuseppe Beschi)|url=https://archive.org/download/tiruvalluvanayan00tiruuoft/tiruvalluvanayan00tiruuoft.pdf|year=1886|publisher=W H Allen & Co.|location=London|page=iii}}</ref><br />
{{cquote|Since this work was sent to the press, I have seen a charming little volume entitled, ''Tales and Poems of South India, from the Tamil,'' by Rev. E. J. Robinson (T. Woolmer, 1885). Had I known of this earlier, I should have felt it less necessary to publish a translation.}}<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
{{Portal|India|Tamils|Literature|Poetry}}<br />
* [[Tirukkural translations]]<br />
* [[Tirukkural translations into English]]<br />
* [[List of translators into English]]<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
<br />
{{Tirukkural}}<br />
{{Tamil language}}<br />
<br />
{{authority control}}<br />
<br />
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Edward Jewitt}}<br />
[[Category:Protestant missionaries in India]]<br />
[[Category:Tamil scholars of non-Tamil background]]<br />
[[Category:Tamil–English translators]]<br />
[[Category:Translators of the Tirukkural into English]]<br />
[[Category:Tirukkural translators]]<br />
[[Category:Missionary linguists]]</div>>Ser Amantio di Nicolao