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{{short description|British civil servant}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Francis Whyte Ellis
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 1777 
| birth_place =
| death_date = 1819 
| death_place = Ramnad
| other_names =
| occupation = Collector of Madras, translator, Tamil and Sanskrit scholar
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
}}

'''Francis Whyte Ellis''' (1777–1819)<ref name="trautmann1">{{Harvnb|Trautmann|2006| p=73}}</ref> was a [[British Raj|British]] [[Indian Civil Service|civil servant]] in the [[Madras Presidency]] and a scholar of [[Tamil language|Tamil]] and [[Sanskrit]].

==Biography==
Ellis became a writer in the [[English East India Company|East India Company's]] service at [[Madras]] in 1796. He was promoted to the offices of assistant-under secretary, deputy-secretary, and secretary to the board of revenue in 1798, 1801, and 1802 respectively. In 1806 he was appointed judge of the [[Zillah (country subdivision)|zillah]] of [[Machilipatnam]], in 1809 collector of land customs in the Madras presidency, and in 1810 collector of Madras. He died at [[Ramnad]] of [[cholera]]<ref>The Dictionary of National Biography mentions Cholera as the cause of his death. But Trautmann writes he died of accidental self-poisoning.({{Harvnb|Trautmann|2006| p=76}}). An obituary published in the [[London]] [[Literary Gazette]] and Journal in 1820 says "a fatal accident terminated his life"</ref> on 10 March 1819.

==Dravidian language hypothesis==
Ellis is the first scholar who classified the [[Dravidian languages]] as a separate [[language family]].<ref name="trautmann3">{{Harvnb|Trautmann|2006| pp=75–76}}</ref><ref name="burnell">{{cite book|last=Burnell|first=Arthur Coke |title=Elements of South-Indian Palabography |year=2008 |publisher=BiblioBazaar |isbn=978-0-554-90622-5|pages=35|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6YREQMsPQkwC&pg=PA35 }}</ref>
[[Robert Caldwell]], who is often credited as the first scholar to propose a separate language family for South Indian languages, acknowledges Ellis's contribution in his preface to the first edition of ''A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South Indian Family of Languages'':<ref name="trautmann2">{{Harvnb|Trautmann|2006| p=74}}</ref>

<blockquote>The first to break ground in the field was Mr. Ellis, a Madras civilian, whose was profoundly versed in the Tamil language and literature, and who interesting but very brief comparison, not of the grammatical forms, but only of some of the vocables of three Dravidian dialects, is contained in his introduction to ''Campbell's [[Telugu language|Telugu]] Grammar''.</blockquote>

===History===
Ellis first published his notion about the South Indian languages forming a separate language family in a "Note to Introduction" for his protege Alexandar Duncan Campbell's ''Telugu Grammar'' in 1816.<ref name="blackburn"/> The event which set forth in motion the writing of the "Dravidian Proof" was the report of the Committee of Examination of Junior Civil Servants issued in 1811. The committee, chaired by Ellis, wanted the civil service officers to learn the basic structure of the South Indian languages, so that they can function effectively wherever they were stationed in South India. It noted that the common features of five South Indian "dialects" - High Tamil, Low Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada and recommended the teaching of Tamil as a representative of all five. The College of Fort St. George and its press (see below), were given the task of creating grammars and other text books for the language training. As a part of this effort, Campbell, then the secretary to the Board of Superintendents of the college, prepared a work of Telugu grammar in 1816. Two years before, another work of Telugu grammar had been published by [[William Carey (missionary)|William Carey]] (an [[Oriental studies|orientalist]] missionary from [[Calcutta]]) at the [[Serampore]] press, in which he described Sanskrit as the source of all South Indian languages. In his grammar, Campbell set out to disprove Carey and other Calcutta orientalists like [[Charles Wilkins]] and [[Henry Thomas Colebrooke]] (proponents of the "all Indian languages are derived from Sanskrit" school of thought). Ellis wrote a note to introduction for Campbell's book in which he offered his "Dravidian Proof".<ref name="trautmann7">{{Harvnb|Trautmann|2006| pp=151–170}}</ref>

===The Dravidian Proof===
Ellis' Dravidian Proof is a step by step attempt to establish the non-Sanskritic origins of Telugu. Ellis first compared the [[Root (linguistics)|roots]] of Sanskrit and Telugu. Parallel columns of the roots were presented to show the difference between the two languages. For Sanskrit, the roots were taken from ''[[Dhatupatha#Dhatupatha|Dhatupatha]]'' and for Telugu, they were taken from a list compiled by Pattabhirama Shastri. In the second step, Ellis used a more complex comparative table of Tamil, Telugu and Kannada roots to show that the languages shared [[Cognate]] roots. In the third and final step Ellis used a comparative table of words made from the roots of the three languages to show their relationship as well. Ellis made use of Telugu scholar Mamadi Venkayya's ''Andhradipaka'' as a source for different types of Telugu words. As a conclusion, Ellis disproved the prevailing theory that though roots and words might be common to South Indian languages, the difference in their idioms was great. He accomplished this by translating the same passages from Sanskrit and English into Tamil, Telugu and Kannada and analysing the sentence structures of the translations.<ref name="trautmann7"/>

==Other literary contributions==

===St. George College and its press===
While stationed at Madras, Ellis became interested in the history and languages of India. He was a member of the Member of the Madras Literary Society<ref name="trautmann4">{{Harvnb|Trautmann|2006| pp=80–81}}</ref> and the founder of the college of [[Fort St. George (India)|Fort St. George]] at Madras - an institution which had both British and Indian members.<ref name="trautmann1"/> Pattabiram Shasthri, Muthusami Pillai, Udayagiri Venkatanarayanayya, Chidambara Vaathiyaar and Syed Abdul Khadar were among Indian scholars who worked in the college. The college was founded in 1812 and the next year Ellis also helped set up the College Press by supplying it with a printing press and Tamil types. Telugu types, printing ink and labour for the venture was supplied by the Superintendent of Government Press at [[Egmore]]. The Madras Government supplied the paper. Ellis purchased English types and printing ink for the Press cheaply. The press commenced publishing in 1813 - its first work was [[Constanzo Beschi]]'s (Veeramamunivar) Tamil grammar ''Kodum Tamil''. Before Ellis's death in 1819, the press published a Tamil grammar primer ''Ilakkana surukkam'', a Tamil translation of ''[[Ramayana#Uttara Kanda|Uttara Kandam]]'' of ''[[Ramayana]]'' (both by Chitthambala Desikar), Ellis' own translation and commentary of [[Thirukkural]] and five Telugu works - Campbell's grammar (with Ellis' Dravidian Proof), tales of Vikkirama, a translation of ''[[Panchatantra]]'' and two more grammars. The press continued publishing books into the 1830s including works in Kannada, [[Malayalam]] and [[Arabic]].<ref name="blackburn"/>

===Works of Ellis===
Ellis and his friends [[William Erskine (historian)|William Erskine]] and [[John Leyden]] were oriental scholars interested in learning about the various aspects of Indian life and publishing works on Indian languages. Ellis was a capable administrator and had a good relationship with Indians.<ref name="obit">{{cite book|title=The London literary gazette and journal of belles lettres, arts, sciences, etc|year=1820|publisher=The London Literary Gazette|pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_JSQAAAAAYAAJ/page/n17 12]|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_JSQAAAAAYAAJ|quote=francis whyte ellis.}}</ref> He even adopted their customs and way of dressing. Among Ellis contributions to oriental scholarship are his works on South Indian property ownership, Hindu law, a "fake" [[French language|French]] [[Veda]] and his commentary on [[Thirukkural]].<ref name="blackburn">{{cite book|last=Blackburn|first=Stuart|title=Print, folklore, and nationalism in colonial South India |year=2006|publisher=Orient Blackswan|isbn=978-81-7824-149-4|pages=92–95|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y-BxrNKdwPMC&q=francis+whyte+ellis&pg=PA92}}</ref> In 1814, Ellis wrote an account of the ''Mirasi'' land proprietary system of South India with the help of his ''Sheristadar'' (chief of staff), the Indian scholar Shankarayya.<ref name="trautmann5_1">{{Harvnb|Trautmann|2006| p=98}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Irschick|first=Eugune. F|title=Dialogue and history: constructing South India, 1795–1895|year=1994|publisher=[[University of California Press]]|isbn=978-0-520-08405-6|pages=101|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gwEOfHfUFTkC&q=francis+whyte+ellis&pg=PA101}}</ref> As his reputation for oriental scholarship grew, he was requested by Alexander Johnston to research the origins of a French work titled ''Ezour Vedam'', which was claimed as a translation of a Sanskrit work and a [[Veda]]. Ellis proved that the "Vedam" was not a translation but an original work of the [[Jesuit]] priest [[Roberto de Nobili]], written in 1621 for converting Hindus to Christianity. His monograph on the ''Ezour Vedam'' was published posthumously in the ''Asiatic Journal'' in 1822.<ref name="ezour">{{cite book|last=Rocher|first=Ludo |title=Ezourvedam: a French Veda of the eighteenth century |year=1984|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company|isbn=978-0-915027-06-4|pages=18–20|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fM9VuzTwBesC&q=francis+whyte+ellis&pg=PA20}}</ref> He delivered a series of lectures on Hindu law at the Madras Literary Society, which were published after his death. Ellis had a high regard for Tamil poet-saint [[Tiruvalluvar]] and his ''Thirukkural''.<ref>A stone inscription found on the walls of a well at the Periya palayathamman temple at [[Royapettah|Royapettai]] indicates Ellis' regard for Thiruvalluvar. It is one of the 27 wells dug on the orders of Ellis in 1818, when Madras suffered a severe drinking water shortage. In the long inscription Ellis praises Thiruvalluvar and uses a couplet from Thirukkural to explain his actions during the drought. When he was in charge of the Madras treasury and mint, he also issued a gold coin bearing Thiruvalluvar's image. The Tamil inscription on his grave makes note of his commentary of Thirukkural.{{cite web|last=Mahadevan|first=Iravatham|author-link=Iravatham Mahadevan|url=http://www.varalaaru.com/Default.asp?articleid=539|work=Varalaaru.com|access-date=25 June 2010|language=Tamil|title=The Golden coin depicting Thiruvalluvar -2}}</ref><ref>The original inscription in Tamil written in the ''Asiriyapa'' meter and first person perspective: (The Kural he quotes is in Italics) சயங்கொண்ட தொண்டிய சாணுறு நாடெனும் 
ஆழியில் இழைத்த வழகுறு மாமணி 
குணகடன் முதலாக குட கடலளவு 
நெடுநிலம் தாழ நிமிர்ந்திடு சென்னப் 
பட்டணத்து எல்லீசன் என்பவன் யானே 
பண்டாரகாரிய பாரம் சுமக்கையில் 
புலவர்கள் பெருமான் மயிலையம் பதியான் 
தெய்வப் புலமைத் திருவள்ளுவனார் 
திருக்குறள் தன்னில் திருவுளம் பற்றிய் 
''இருபுனலும் வாய்த்த மலையும் வருபுனலும்'' 
''வல்லரணும் நாட்டிற் குறுப்பு'' 
என்பதின் பொருளை என்னுள் ஆய்ந்து 
ஸ்வஸ்திஸ்ரீ சாலிவாகன சகாப்த வரு 
..றாச் செல்லா நின்ற 
இங்கிலிசு வரு 1818ம் ஆண்டில் 
பிரபவாதி வருக்கு மேற் செல்லா நின்ற 
பஹுதான்ய வரு த்தில் வார திதி 
நக்ஷத்திர யோக கரணம் பார்த்து 
சுப திநத்தி லிதனோ டிருபத்தேழு 
துரவு கண்டு புண்ணியாஹவாசநம் 
பண்ணுவித்தேன்

</ref> He translated 18 chapters of the ''Aratthupaal'' (one division of Thirukkural dealing with law and virtue) into English in a non-metrical verse. 13 of those chapters were published by the college press during Ellis' lifetime.<ref name="blackburn"/><ref>{{cite book|last=Zvelebil|first=Kamil|author-link=Kamil Zvelebil|title=Companion studies to the history of Tamil literature|year=1992|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-09365-2|pages=3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qAPtq49DZfoC&q=francis+whyte+ellis+thirukkural&pg=PA3}}</ref> Ellis was also the first scholar to decipher and explain the first century CE "Cochin Grants" given to the [[Anjuvannam]] [[Cochin Jews|Jewish community]] in [[Cochin]].<ref name="burnell"/> In addition to the "Dravidian Proof", Ellis wrote three dissertations - on Tamil,<ref name="burnell"/> Telugu, and Malayalam.<ref name="trautmann8">{{Harvnb|Trautmann|2006| p=156}}</ref>

It has been suggested that Ellis worked with others to promote vaccinations to prevent smallpox. In order to reduce resistance from Indians, he is thought to have helped craft a Sanskrit verse that was then claimed to have been discovered and described, showing that the European form of vaccination was in fact just a modification of something known in ancient India. The publication of the letter first inserted into the ''Madras Courier'',<ref>{{cite news |date=12 January 1819 |title=[To the editor of the Madras Courier] |newspaper=Madras Courier |url=https://archive.org/details/MadrasCourier1819/mode/1up}}</ref> in 1819 under the pseudonym "Calvi Virumbom" was widely propagated.<ref>{{cite book |author=Wujastyk, Dominik |title=Studies on Indian medical history |publisher=Egbert Forsten |year=1987 |editor1=G J Meulenbeld |place=Groningen |pages=131–167 |chapter=A pious fraud: the Indian claims for pre-Jennerian smallpox vaccination. |editor2=D Wujastyk}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ring |first=John |date=1805 |title=Mr. Shoolbred, on Vaccine Inoculation in Bengal |journal=The Medical and Physical Journal |volume=13 |issue=74 |pages=336–347 |issn=0267-0100 |pmc=5670459 |pmid=30490820}}</ref>

==Legacy==
When Ellis died in Ramnad, he left some of his papers — philological and political — to Sir [[Walter Elliot (ICS)|Walter Elliot]], on whose death they passed to [[G. U. Pope]], who had them placed in the [[Bodleian Library]] at Oxford. According to Sir Walter, many of Ellis' unpublished works were lost when they were burned by the cook of the [[Madurai]] collector Rous Petrie.<ref name="trautmann4"/> Ellis did not publish them earlier because he wanted to do so only after becoming a "ripened scholar at forty years".<ref name="trautmann5_2">{{Harvnb|Trautmann|2006| p=77}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Asiatic journal and monthly register for British and foreign India, China, and Australia Vol 26|year=1828|publisher=Parbury, Allen, and Co|pages=155|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6iYYAAAAYAAJ&q=francis+whyte+ellis&pg=PA155}}</ref> As an administrator, Ellis was well liked by his Indian subjects.<ref name="obit"/> His grave at [[Dindigal]] bears two inscriptions - one in English and the other in Tamil.<ref>{{cite web|last=Mahadevan|first=Iravatham|author-link=Iravatham Mahadevan|url=http://www.varalaaru.com/Default.asp?articleid=539|work=Varalaaru.com|access-date=25 June 2010|language=Tamil|title=The Golden coin depicting Thiruvalluvar -2}}</ref> The English inscription reads:

<blockquote>Uniting activity of mind with versatility of genius, he displayed the same ardour and happy sufficiency on whatever his varied talents were employed. Conversant with the Hindoo languages and Literature of the Peninsula, he was loved and esteemed by the Natives of India, with whom he associated intimately.<ref name="burnell"/></blockquote>

[[Dalit]] activist [[Iyothee Thass]] has credited Ellis as being the forerunner of Tamil revivalism in the 19th century.<ref>{{cite web|last=Venkatachalapathy|first=A. R|title=A Scholar called Ellis|url=http://www.kalachuvadu.com/issue-89/varalaru.asp|work=Kalachuvadu Magazine|access-date=25 June 2010|author-link=A. R. Venkatachalapathy|language=Tamil|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100308003806/http://www.kalachuvadu.com/issue-89/varalaru.asp|archive-date=8 March 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[List of translators into English]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|2}}

==References==
{{refbegin}}
*[[:wikisource:Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/282|National Biography]]
*{{cite book|last=Trautmann|first=Thomas. R.|author-link=Thomas Trautmann|title=Languages and nations: the Dravidian proof in colonial Madras|year=2006|publisher=Yoda Press|isbn=978-81-903634-0-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9dtg05fd_XEC}}
{{refend}}
*Sreekumar, P. 2009. ''Francis Whyte Ellis and the Beginning of Comparative Dravidian Linguistics''. Source: Historiographia Linguistica, Volume 36, Number 1, 2009, pp. 75–95(21) [http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/jbp/hl/2009/00000036/00000001/art00004?crawler=true] Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

==External links==
*[http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2614/stories/20090717261408000.htm Thomas Trautmann's interview published in Frontline]

{{Tirukkural}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ellis, Francis Whyte}}
[[Category:British East India Company civil servants]]
[[Category:1819 deaths]]
[[Category:1777 births]]
[[Category:Linguists of Tamil]]
[[Category:Tamil–English translators]]
[[Category:Translators of the Tirukkural into English]]
[[Category:18th-century British translators]]
[[Category:Scholars from British India]]
[[Category:People from the Madras Presidency]]
[[Category:British Sanskrit scholars]]
[[Category:Civil servants from British India]]

Francis Whyte Ellis - Revision history

LukasBeg27134 at 20:29, 25 March 2026