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{{Short description|Indian academic, author and translator (1763–1835)}}
{{redirect|Prem Sagar|the cinematographer)|Prem Sagar (cinematographer)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2019}}
{{Use Indian English|date=January 2019}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Lallu Lal
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name = 
| birth_date = 1763
| birth_place = [[Agra]], [[Maratha Empire]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1835|||1763|||df=y}}
| death_place = [[Calcutta]], [[Bengal Presidency]], [[British India]]
| occupation = College instructor, translator, author
| notable_works = ''Prem Sagar''
}}
'''Lallu Lal''' (1763–1835) was an academic, author and translator from [[India]]. He was an instructor in the [[Hindustani language]] at [[Fort William College]] in [[Hastings, Kolkata|Hastings]], Calcutta. He is notable for ''Prem Sagar'', the first work in modern literary [[Hindi]].
[[File:Premsagar1.png|thumb|Prem Sagar of Lallo Lal, page 1, Sunscrit Press Calcutta, 1810.]]

== Biography ==

Lallu Lal was born into a [[Gujarati people|Gujarati]] [[Audichya Brahmins|Sahsra Audichya Brahmin]] family from [[Agra]].<ref>Prem Sagar, Lullo Lal Kub, Sunscrit Press, Calcutta, 1810</ref> He had knowledge of [[Persian language|Persian]] and Hindustani. He came to [[Murshidabad]], Bengal, to earn a living, and served the [[Nawab of Murshidabad]] for seven years. He was noticed by [[John Gilchrist (linguist)|John Gilchrist]], who brought him to the Fort William College in Calcutta. There, Lallu Lal translated and authored several literary works into modern vernacular Hindi. He retired from the Fort William College in 1823–24, after serving there for 24 years.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Akbar Padamsee |author2=Shamlal |title=Western Influence in Bengali Literature |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bIlBAQAAIAAJ |year=1966 |publisher=Vakil |page=320 }}</ref>

== Works ==

Lallu Lal's most notable translation is ''Prem Sagar'' (1804–1810), the earliest prose in [[Khari Boli]] dialect of Hindi. Along with Kazim Ali Javan, he translated ''[[Singhasan Battisi]]'' and ''[[Shakuntala]]'' into Hindustani. Along with Mazhar Ali Vila, he also translated ''[[Baital Pachisi]]'' and ''Madhunal'' (1805) into Hindustani.<ref>{{cite book |author=Thomas Grahame Bailey |title=A history of Urdu literature |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jT8qAQAAIAAJ |year=2008 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-547518-0 |page=80 }}</ref>

Lallu Lal's original work included ''The Grammar of Brij-bhasa'' (1811), in [[Urdu script]]. He also authored ''Lala Chandrika'', a commentary on [[Bihari Lal|Bihari]]'s ''[[Satasai]]''.<ref>{{cite book |editor=George Abraham Grierson |editor-link=George Abraham Grierson |title=The Satsaiya of Bihari, with a Commentary Entitled the Lala-candrika, by Çri Lallu Lal Kavi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zeB_nQEACAAJ |year=1896 |publisher=Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta}}</ref>

In addition, he compiled ''Lataif-i-Hindi'' or ''The New Cyclopedia Hindoostanica of Wit'' (1810) in Urdu and [[Devanagari]] scripts. It is a collection of around 100 witty stories and anecdotes.<ref name="AJK_2006">{{cite book |author=Abdul Jamil Khan |title=Urdu/Hindi: An Artificial Divide |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jWpNBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA205 |year=2006 |publisher=Algora Publishing |isbn=978-0-87586-437-2 |page=205 }}</ref>

=== Prem Sagar ===
''Prem Sagar'' or ''Prem Sagur'' ("Ocean of Love") was one of the first modern [[Hindi]] books that was typeset and published, composed between 1804 and 1810, and published in 1810. A translation of Chaturbhuja Misra's [[Braj Bhasa]] book, its story is based on the tenth book of the ''[[Bhagavata Purana]]'', the legend of [[Krishna]].<ref name="WH_1848">{{cite book |translator=W. Hollings |title=The Prem Sagur of Lallu Lal |url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/psa/ |publisher=Ridsdale |isbn=978-1-4655-8069-6 |year=1848 |page=1 }}</ref> Lallu Lal mention that book has been composed in the "Khadi Boli of Delhi-Agra". The language is termed as "translated into Hinduvee from the Brij Bhasha" on the face page.

The earliest Hindustani language literature made heavy use of Persian words, and resembled modern [[Urdu]]. Lallu Lal was among the first writers to use words of [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan]] origin in Hindustani language literature. His ''Prem Sagar'' is the earliest work, whose language resembles modern [[Sanskrit]]ized [[Hindi]]. Linguist [[Jules Bloch]] describes the importance of Lallu Lal's work as follows:<ref>{{cite web
| title = 03misconceptions
| url = http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00urduhindilinks/tarachand/03misconceptions.html
| date = 2023-05-01
| archiveurl = https://archive.today/20230501004154/http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00urduhindilinks/tarachand/03misconceptions.html
| archivedate = 2023-05-01 }}</ref>

{{blockquote|Lallu Lal, under the inspiration of Dr. Gilchrist, changed all that by writing the famous ''Prem Sagar'', whose prose portions are on the whole Urdu, from which Persian words have been throughout replaced by Indo-Aryan words… The new dialect gave a lingua franca to the Hindus.|Jules Bloch}}The book was inspired stylistically by the ''[[Chaurashi Vaishnavan ki Varta|Caurāsī Vaiṣṇavan kī Vārtā]]'', a 17th-18th century Braj Bhasha text written by [[Harirāy]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Barz |first=Richard |title=Brill's Encyclopedia of Hinduism Online |publisher=Brill |year=2018 |editor-last=Jacobsen |editor-first=Knut A. |chapter=Vallabha |editor-last2=Basu |editor-first2=Helene |editor-last3=Malinar |editor-first3=Angelika |editor-last4=Narayanan |editor-first4=Vasudha}}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
* The Prema-Sâgara or, Ocean of Love. Ed. by Frederick Pincoff. Westminster, Archibald Constable, 1891
* Théologie hindoue. Le Prem Sagar, océan d’amour. Traduit par Е. Lamairesse II., 1893, Saint-Amand, 1899
* The Prem Sagar in English. Allahabad, 1900

== External links ==

* [https://archive.org/details/premsagurorhist00catugoog The Prem Sagur of Lallu Lal]
* [http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/psa/ The Prem Sagur of Lallu Lal], translated into English by W. Hollings (1848)
* Lullov-Lal, The Prem Sagur or the history of Krishnu, according to tho tenth chapter of the Bhaguvut of Vyasudevu, transl. into Hindu from the Bruj Bhasha etc. Calcutta, 1842

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lal, Lallu}}
[[Category:Hindi-language Indian writers]]
[[Category:Gujarati people]]
[[Category:Writers from Agra]]
[[Category:1763 births]]
[[Category:1835 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian male writers]]
[[Category:18th-century Indian translators]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian translators]]
[[Category:Scholars from British India]]
[[Category:People from the Bengal Presidency]]
[[Category:Hindi–English translators]]
[[Category:Urdu-language writers from British India]]
[[Category:Writers from Kolkata]]

Lallu Lal - Revision history

Wikindia777 at 09:22, 8 February 2026