7 CHAPTER 7: MAJOR PUBLICATIONS AND LITERARY OUTPUT

**Learning Objectives**

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:
– Identify and describe Bailey’s most significant publications
– Understand the process and challenges of producing the first Malayalam Bible
– Analyse the importance of Bailey’s Malayalam-English dictionary
– Evaluate the role of periodicals and educational texts in shaping Malayalam print culture
– Assess the collective impact of Bailey’s publications on Malayalam language and literature

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### 7.1 The First Book Printed in Malayalam

The honour of being the first book printed in Malayalam belongs to a modest volume with a long title: *Cherupaitangalku Upakarardhamulla Pusthakam*, which translates as “A Book for the Benefit of Children.” Published in 1824 by the CMS Press, Kottayam, this small reader marked the beginning of Malayalam print culture.

The book was exactly what its title suggested: an educational reader designed for use in the mission schools that Bailey and his colleagues were establishing. It contained simple reading exercises, basic moral instruction, and passages from scripture adapted for young readers. By modern standards, it was unremarkable—a slim volume of perhaps a few dozen pages, printed on imported paper with the imperfect type that Bailey was still refining. But its significance lay not in its content but in its existence. For the first time, a book had been printed in Malayalam, on a press located in Kerala, using type designed specifically for the language.

Bailey understood the symbolic importance of this first publication. He was not merely producing a schoolbook; he was demonstrating what the press could do. The successful printing of *Cherupaitangalku Upakarardhamulla Pusthakam* proved that Malayalam movable type was viable, that local workers could be trained to use it, and that the CMS Press could fulfil the mission for which it had been established.

The print run of this first book was probably small—perhaps a few hundred copies—but its impact was disproportionate to its numbers. Copies circulated among the Syrian Christian community and beyond, serving as evidence of what the missionaries could offer. The book itself became an argument for the value of the mission, a tangible demonstration of the benefits of association with the CMS.

Today, surviving copies of this first Malayalam printed book are exceedingly rare. They are preserved in a handful of libraries and archives, treated as precious artifacts of Kerala’s cultural heritage. The worn pages and imperfect impressions speak eloquently of the pioneering effort that produced them.

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### 7.2 Educational Textbooks and Tracts

Following the success of his first publication, Bailey rapidly expanded the CMS Press’s output of educational materials. The mission schools needed textbooks, and the press could produce them more cheaply and in greater quantities than hand copying could provide. Over the 1820s and 1830s, Bailey authored, translated, or supervised the production of a growing library of educational works.

These textbooks covered the range of subjects taught in mission schools. There were readers for different levels, progressing from simple vocabulary to complex passages. There were arithmetic books, introducing the fundamentals of calculation. There were geography texts, opening students’ eyes to the world beyond Kerala. There were books on history, on natural science, on moral instruction. Each of these represented a departure from traditional education, which had focused primarily on religious texts and classical languages.

Bailey’s educational publications were notable for their use of vernacular language. Unlike the traditional system, in which Sanskrit dominated formal learning, the CMS textbooks were written in accessible Malayalam that students could actually understand. This pedagogical choice, which seems obvious to modern sensibilities, was genuinely innovative in its context. It made education available to students who would never have mastered Sanskrit, and it helped establish Malayalam as a language capable of expressing a full range of academic subjects.

Alongside textbooks, the press produced tracts—short, inexpensive publications designed for wide distribution. These included devotional works, moral exhortations, and explanations of Christian doctrine. The tract was a favoured genre of evangelical publishing, combining low cost with high potential impact. A tract could be read by an individual, shared with neighbours, or read aloud to a group. It could travel where a preacher could not go, crossing distances and persisting over time.

The cumulative effect of this educational publishing was significant. By the 1840s, the CMS Press had produced dozens of titles, and printed materials were circulating throughout the Syrian Christian community and beyond. The press was not the only source of books in Kerala, but it was by far the most prolific, and its output shaped the reading habits and intellectual horizons of a generation.

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### 7.3 The Malayalam Bible Translation

If Bailey’s educational publications were the routine work of the press, his translation of the Bible into Malayalam was the monumental achievement that defined his career. The project consumed decades of his life, demanded the full range of his linguistic and scholarly abilities, and produced a text that would serve Malayalam-speaking Christians for generations.

The need for a Malayalam Bible was clear to the CMS missionaries from the beginning. The Syrian Christians had scripture readings in their liturgy, but these were in Syriac, a language that most worshippers did not understand. For the missionaries, a central tenet of evangelical Christianity was that every believer should have access to the Bible in their own language. Producing a reliable, readable Malayalam translation was therefore among the highest priorities of the Travancore mission.

Bailey began work on the translation early in his career, but the project was inherently long-term. Translating the Bible is not simply a matter of substituting words from one language into another. It requires deep knowledge of the source languages—Hebrew for the Old Testament, Greek for the New—as well as mastery of the target language. It requires theological sophistication to handle concepts that may have no exact equivalent in the target culture. And it requires literary sensitivity to produce a text that is not merely accurate but also dignified, readable, and suited for public proclamation.

Bailey worked systematically through the biblical books, translating, revising, and consulting with colleagues and local assistants. The translation was a collaborative enterprise: Bailey provided knowledge of the original languages and theological training; his Malayalam-speaking assistants ensured that the translation was idiomatic and natural to native ears. The names of these assistants are mostly lost, but their contribution was essential.

The Malayalam New Testament was published first, appearing in 1829. It was received with enthusiasm by the Syrian Christian community and by CMS supporters in England, who saw in the printed vernacular scripture the fulfilment of one of the mission’s core objectives. The complete Malayalam Bible—Old and New Testaments together—followed in 1841, representing the culmination of more than two decades of labour.

The Bailey translation shaped Malayalam Christian vocabulary and expression for generations. Words and phrases that he coined to express biblical concepts entered the language, becoming part of the shared heritage of all Malayalam-speaking Christians, regardless of denomination. Even as later translations were produced, the Bailey Bible retained a place of honour, valued for its linguistic qualities and its historical significance.

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### 7.4 The Malayalam-English Dictionary (1846)

Alongside his biblical translation, Bailey undertook another work of lasting linguistic significance: the first Malayalam-English dictionary. Published in 1846, this substantial volume was a pioneering achievement that opened the Malayalam language to scholarly study and facilitated communication between Malayalam speakers and the English-speaking world.

The need for a dictionary was practical. Missionaries and colonial officials needed to learn Malayalam; Malayalam speakers were increasingly engaging with English. Existing resources were inadequate—there were wordlists and glossaries, but no comprehensive dictionary that covered the full range of the language with definitions in English. Bailey, with his decades of experience in the language and his systematic habits of mind, was uniquely positioned to fill this gap.

Compiling a dictionary in the pre-digital age was a labour of years. Bailey collected words from his reading, from conversation, from the manuscripts and printed texts that passed through his hands. He recorded meanings, noted variant forms, and organised the material according to the Malayalam alphabet. The work required not only linguistic knowledge but also immense patience and attention to detail. Every entry represented a small act of scholarship: determining the word’s spelling, its pronunciation, its range of meanings, its appropriate English equivalents.

The published dictionary, running to many hundreds of pages, was a typographic achievement as well as a scholarly one. The combination of Malayalam and English text on the same page presented compositional challenges that Bailey and his workers had to solve. The result was a volume that was both functional and handsome, a credit to the CMS Press and to its creator.

The dictionary was immediately useful to the audiences for which it was intended. Missionaries used it in their language study. Colonial administrators consulted it. Malayalam speakers found in it a bridge to English. But its significance went beyond immediate utility. By documenting the Malayalam language systematically, Bailey contributed to its standardisation and to its recognition as a major literary language. The dictionary was a statement that Malayalam mattered—that it was a language worthy of serious scholarly attention.

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### 7.5 Grammar and Language Studies

In addition to the dictionary, Bailey produced grammatical works designed to help European learners master Malayalam. These included outlines of Malayalam grammar, guides to the script, and practical handbooks for language study. Like his other linguistic publications, these works combined scholarly rigour with practical usefulness.

Bailey’s grammatical descriptions were the first systematic accounts of Malayalam produced by a European scholar. He identified the parts of speech, described the inflectional system, and explained the syntax of the language in terms that English-speaking learners could understand. His analyses were not always perfect—linguistics as a formal discipline was in its infancy—but they provided a foundation on which later scholars would build.

These grammatical works served a practical purpose for the mission, enabling new missionaries to acquire the language more quickly than Bailey himself had been able to do. But they also contributed to the broader project of making Malayalam accessible to European scholarship. Through Bailey’s grammars and dictionary, scholars in Europe gained their first systematic knowledge of the language, opening the way for comparative philology and the study of the Dravidian language family.

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### 7.6 Hymns and Devotional Literature

Bailey’s literary output was not limited to scholarly and educational works. He was also a hymn writer and translator, contributing to the development of Malayalam Christian hymnody. Music was an important part of evangelical worship, and the mission needed hymns that Malayalam-speaking congregations could sing.

Translating hymns presents particular challenges. The translator must not only convey meaning but also preserve metre, rhyme, and singability. The result must feel natural when sung, not like a prose text forced into a musical mould. Bailey, drawing on his linguistic skill and his familiarity with English hymnody, produced translations that met these demands. Some of his hymns entered the repertoire of Malayalam Christian worship and continued to be sung long after his time.

In addition to hymns, Bailey produced other devotional materials: prayer books, meditations on scripture, and guides to Christian living. These publications, often issued as tracts or small booklets, were designed to nurture the spiritual lives of converts and enquirers. They represented the pastoral dimension of Bailey’s publishing work—the desire not merely to inform but to edify, to provide resources for personal and communal devotion.

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### 7.7 Newspapers and Periodicals: *Njananikshepam*

One of Bailey’s most significant contributions to Malayalam print culture was the establishment of *Njananikshepam* (The Treasury of Knowledge), generally regarded as the first Malayalam periodical. Launched in 1848, this publication represented a new departure for the CMS Press—from books and tracts to the regular production of a periodical that could address current issues and reach a wider readership.

*Njananikshepam* was a modest publication by modern standards: a few pages, appearing at intervals, printed in the medium-size type of the CMS Press. Its content was a mixture of religious instruction, general knowledge, news, and features on topics of practical interest. It was designed to inform, to educate, and to provide wholesome reading material for the growing literate population that the mission schools were producing.

The periodical format offered advantages that books did not. It could respond to current events. It could build a regular readership, creating a community of readers who shared a common diet of information and ideas. It could experiment with different kinds of content, seeing what resonated with readers and what did not. In these respects, *Njananikshepam* was the ancestor of the rich tradition of Malayalam journalism and periodical literature that would flourish in the late 19th and 20th centuries.

Bailey edited *Njananikshepam* during the final years of his time in Travancore, and the publication continued after his departure under the direction of his successors. Its influence extended beyond the immediate Christian community, contributing to the formation of a reading public that crossed communal boundaries. The very existence of a Malayalam periodical was a milestone in the development of the language and its print culture.

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### The Scale of Achievement

Looking across the full range of Bailey’s publications—from the first children’s reader of 1824 to the dictionary of 1846, from the New Testament of 1829 to the complete Bible of 1841, from textbooks to tracts to periodicals—we can appreciate the sheer scale of his literary output. Over a period of about twenty-five years, Bailey authored, translated, edited, or supervised the production of dozens of works, many of them substantial volumes.

This output was achieved in the context of a full missionary life. Bailey was not a full-time scholar, secluded in a study. He was an active missionary, responsible for preaching, teaching, administration, and the management of the press. His publications were produced in the interstices of a demanding schedule, often late at night or in the early morning hours before the day’s work began.

The quality of the work, as well as its quantity, deserves recognition. Bailey’s translations, particularly his Bible, were praised by contemporaries for their accuracy and their literary quality. His dictionary remained the standard reference for decades. His educational texts served generations of students. And his periodical pioneered a new form of communication that would become central to Malayalam culture.

In assessing Bailey’s publications, we should remember that they were collaborative products. The names on the title pages may be Bailey’s alone, but the works themselves reflect the contributions of the unnamed Malayalam speakers who served as informants, translators, editors, and critics. The CMS Press was a site of intercultural knowledge production, and its publications embody the joint labour of British missionaries and Indian Christians.

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**Key Takeaways**

– The first book printed in Malayalam was a children’s reader published by Bailey in 1824, marking the birth of Malayalam print culture.
– Bailey produced a wide range of educational textbooks that made vernacular education possible and helped standardise written Malayalam.
– His translation of the complete Malayalam Bible, published in 1841, was a monumental achievement that shaped Christian vocabulary and expression in the language.
– The Malayalam-English Dictionary of 1846 was the first comprehensive dictionary of the language, opening Malayalam to scholarly study.
– *Njananikshepam*, launched in 1848, was the first Malayalam periodical and the precursor of Kerala’s rich journalistic tradition.
– Bailey’s publications collectively represent one of the most significant bodies of work in the history of Malayalam literature.

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**Discussion Questions**

1. Why was it significant that Bailey’s first publication was a children’s book rather than a religious text? What does this choice reveal about his priorities?
2. Consider the challenges of translating the Bible into a language that had no existing Christian vocabulary. How might Bailey have approached this task?
3. What role did Bailey’s dictionary play in the broader project of making Malayalam a language of modern knowledge and communication?
4. How did *Njananikshepam* differ from Bailey’s other publications? What new possibilities did the periodical format open up?

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**Primary Source: Bailey on Completing the Malayalam Bible**

*”This day I have completed the final revision of the Old Testament, and the entire Scriptures are now ready for the press in the Malayalam language. This work has been the labour of more than twenty years, and I can scarcely express the feelings with which I lay down my pen. I am deeply conscious of the imperfections that remain, yet I trust that what has been done will be blessed to the spiritual benefit of this people. To God alone be the glory.”*

*(CMS Archives, C I1/M12, Bailey to Secretary, 3 March 1841. Spelling and punctuation modernised.)*

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**Primary Source: Preface to the Malayalam-English Dictionary (1846)**

*”In presenting this Dictionary to the public, the compiler is sensible of its many deficiencies. A work of this kind, undertaken for the first time in a language, must necessarily be imperfect. The Malayalam language is rich in words, and many have doubtless escaped notice. Yet it is hoped that what is here offered will be of service to those who are engaged in the study of this tongue, and will contribute, in some small measure, to the diffusion of knowledge among the people of Travancore.”*

*(Bailey, B. (1846). A Dictionary of High and Colloquial Malayalam and English. Kottayam: CMS Press. Spelling and punctuation modernised.)*

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**Further Reading**

George, K. M. (1968). *A Survey of Malayalam Literature*. Asia Publishing House. (For the broader context of Bailey’s literary contributions.)

Kesavan, B. S. (1985). *History of Printing and Publishing in India, Vol. 1*. National Book Trust. (Contains detailed catalogue of early Malayalam publications.)

Neill, Stephen. (1985). *A History of Christianity in India: 1707-1858*. Cambridge University Press. (For the context of Bible translation in Indian missions.)

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