The Indo-Aryan language of Sanskrit is the primary language of Hinduism and also a scholarly language of Buddhism. Dating back to the second millennium BCE, it is considered to be the parent of most modern languages of India, and remains central to work in Indo-European studies, philology and linguistics today. First published in 1806, this is a comprehensive grammar of Sanskrit, compiled by the Baptist missionary William Carey (1761-1834) during his time in India. Its purpose was to make the language accessible to European learners, presenting its complex systems of verb conjugation, compound words and affixation in a straightforward way. Reissued here in a two-volume set, Volume 1 contains Books 1-3 of the work, covering characters, pronouns and verbs, and clearly laying out the rules of their formation by way of numerous illustrative examples. Carey's reference works on Marathi and Bengali are also reissued in this series.
The English Baptist preacher William Carey was known as the father of modern Protestant missions, and was a pioneer of new-style evangelism in India. He helped found the Baptist Missionary Society in 1792 and shortly thereafter went to India. Carey did most of the work in publishing the Bible in many Indian vernaculars. He wrote grammars of the vernaculars and several dictionaries. He became a professor of Sanskrit at Fort William College, Calcutta.
In 1793 Carey arrived in India, where he was confronted with the antimissionary attitude of the British colonial government. He settled in the Danish colony of Serampore, near Calcutta, where he inspired the teamwork of the "Serampore Trio" (Carey, William Ward, and Joshua Marshman). This "commune" attempted to translate the universality of the Christian faith into terms of practical involvement in all aspects of Indian life.
The basic principle of communal life was that every member should be, as far as possible, self-supporting. Carey paid for his missionary work (among other things) by acting as a director of an indigo factory and as a professor of languages in a secular institution. The objective of the community was to disseminate the gospel in all possible ways: by preaching, by teaching (in schools), and by literature (translating the Bible into more than 30 languages). Carey's translation service was noteworthy. He also made available some of the Indian classics and was instrumental in the renaissance of Hindu culture in the 19th century.
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