George Uglow Pope

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Statue of GU Pope on Marina Beach in Triplicane , Chennai

George Uglow Pope (also: Rev. GU Pope , GU Pope , Pope Iyer , born April 24, 1820 , Bedeque , Canada ; February 12, 1908 ) was a missionary and Tamil researcher who spent 40 years in Tamil Nadu and wrote many texts English translated. His translations of the Tirukkural and Tiruvachagam are best known . During his time in Tamil Nadu he also served as the headmaster of the Bishop Cotton Boys' School , Bangalore, and later became a lecturer at Balliol College , Oxford . A statue on Marina Beach in Chennai , funded by donations from the Church of South India , pays tribute to his work for Tamil.

Life

George Uglow Pope was born on April 24, 1820 in Bedeque , Prince Edward Island , Canada . His parents were missionaries. His father, John Pope (1791–1863) from Padstow , Cornwall , was initially a trader and then a missionary. Together with Catherine Uglow (1797–1967) he emigrated to Prince Edward Island in 1818. The family first went to Nova Scotia , St. Vincent, before returning to England in 1826 . George Uglow Pope's younger brother William Burt Pope (1822-1903) became a noted Wesleyan Methodist preacher and theologian.

Pope went to South India in 1839 and first went to Sayapuram near Tuticorin . He had already learned Tamil as a teenager in England and improved his knowledge of Tamil, Sanskrit and Telugu in India . He founded several schools and taught Latin , English, Hebrew , mathematics and philosophy.

In 1849 Pope returned to England with his second wife Henrietta Van Sommeran , where he met leading figures of the Oxford Movement such as Cardinal Henry Edward Manning , Richard Chenevix Trench , Bishop Samuel Wilberforce , Bishop John Lonsdale , Edward Bouverie Pusey and John Keble came into relationship. In 1851 Pope returned to India again and worked in Thanjavur , where he taught at St Peter's School , founded by the Lutheran Pioneer Missionary Christian Friedrich Schwartz . He taught there for six years.

On September 1, 1886, he completed his translation of the Tirukkural . His sacred kural includes an introduction, grammar, translation, notes, a lexicon and a concordance. It also offers the English translation by Francis Whyte Ellis and the Latin translation by Constanzo Beschi (வீரமாமுனிவர்) with 436 pages. By February 1893, he translated the Naaladiyaar (நாலடியார்), a textbook of moral sayings in quatrains (வெண்பா) 400 in 40 chapters. Each of them comes after the Tamil tradition from another Jaina -Asketen.

His magnum opus , the translation of Tiruvachakam (திருவாசகம்) was published in 1900. He himself said about it: “I date this to my 80th birthday. I see, from records, that my first class was in Tamil in 1837. This is the end, I believe, of a long life of devotion to the study of Tamil. It is not without deep emotions that I end my literary life's work with it. "

George Uglow Pope was one of the co-founders of the Bishop Cotton Boys' School in Bangalore and was the school principal for a long time. He also served as the first pastor of All Saints Church . In Ooty he founded the Holy Trinity Church and a high school, which he also directed from 1859 to 1870. Today the building houses the Government Arts School and the Stone House .

In 1906 he received the coveted Gold Medal of the Royal Asiatic Society . He delivered his last sermon on May 26, 1907 and died on February 12, 1908 in Oxford. He was buried in St Sepulcher's Cemetery in Jericho (Oxford) , England.

Works

  • First lessons in Tamil: or a full introduction to the common dialect of that language, on the plan of Ollendorf and Arnold , Madras, 1856.
  • A Tamil hand-book: or full introduction to the common dialect of that language on the plan of Ollendorf and Arnold , Madras, 1859.
  • A handbook of the ordinary dialect of the Tamil language , London, 1883 (4th edition, 3 volumes), Oxford 1904.
  • A larger grammar of the Tamil language in both its dialects , Madras, 1858.
  • A text-book of Indian history; with geographical notes, genealogical tables, examination questions, and chronological, biographical, geographical, and general indexes , London, 1871 (1st ed), 1880 (3rd ed.).
  • திருவள்ளுவ AR அருளிச்செய்த திருக்குறள் (Tiruvalluvar arulicceyta Tirrukkural). The 'Sacred' Kurral of Tiruvalluva-Nayanar , London, 1886.
  • முனிவர் அருளிச்செய்த நாலடியார் = The Naladiyar, or, Four hundred quatrains in Tamil , Oxford, 1893.
  • St. John in the Desert: an introduction and notes to Browning's 'a death in the desert' , Oxford, 1897.
  • The tiruvacagam; or, 'Sacred utterances' of the Tamil poet, saint, and sage Manikka-Vacagar: the Tamil text of the fifty-one poems, with English translation , Oxford, 1900.
  • A catalog of the Tamil books in the library of the British Museum, London , 1909 (with LD Barnett).

Quotes

His last letter mentions Tiruvachagam:

My dear friend,
In the heart of this my last sermon, lie truths that harmonize with all that is best in Tiruvachagam and Siva-nyanam (Siva-gnana bodham).
I'm very old. May the Father bless you and yours.

German:

My dear friend,

At the heart of this last sermon of mine are truths that harmoniously combine all that is the best of the Tiruvachagam and Siva-nyanam.

I am very old. May the Father bless you and you.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/17924/11/11_chapter%205.pdf
  2. ^ Uglow Family History . Accessed December 31, 2015.
  3. ^ The Dictionary of National Biography - William Burt Pope .
  4. ^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography .
  5. ↑ “I date this on my eightieth birthday. I find, by reference, that my first Tamil lesson was in 1837. This ends, as I suppose a long life of devotion to Tamil studies. It is not without deep emotion that I thus bring to a close my life's literary work. "
  6. ^ Resident Rendezvoyeur: A natural state of grace , Bangalore Mirror. December 29, 2014. 
  7. ↑ http://www.angelfire.com/planet/shivasevagan/gupope.html

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Pope, George Uglow
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pope Iyer, Rev. GU; Pope, GU; Pōppaiyarāḷ, Ji Yū; Pōp, Ji Yū; ജോർജ് ഒഗ്ലോ പോപ്പ് (Malayalam); ஜி. யு. போப் (Tamil)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English missionary
DATE OF BIRTH April 24, 1820
PLACE OF BIRTH Bedeque , Prince Edward Island , Canada
DATE OF DEATH February 12, 1908
Place of death Oxford