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The spark that Brown lit
Better remembered than F.W. Ellis (Miscellany, March 27) in the world of Telugu language and literature is Charles Philip Brown, another East India Company Civilian who benefited from the three years he spent at the College of Fort St. George after arriving at it as a 19-year-old cadet in 1817.
He was to later write, "When I began these tasks, Telugu literature was dying out, the flame was just glimmering in the socket; the Madras College founded in 1812 preserved that little spark."
Brown's work, which he got down to in earnest after being posted as Deputy Collector, Cuddapah, included writing grammars, dictionaries, prosody and translations. He got interested in the poetry of Vemana in 1824 and began a search for the palm leaf manuscripts of the great Telugu poet.
When in 1829 he published an English translation of some of Vemana's poems, it was his first literary effort.
From collecting manuscripts of Vemana's work, he went on to scour the Presidency for palm leaf manuscripts of other Telugu poetry and prose classics. From collector, he soon turned into an unofficial publisher, ensuring that much of what he had garnered was printed, generally under the auspices of the Company.
In the process, to overcome the complexities of the letters of the Telugu alphabet and make them easier to compose for print, he introduced various changes in the fonts and these still survive. The material he published is even today considered by experts as the first body of printed Telugu publications.
Brown, stricken by ill health, retired to Britain in 1855. Recovering there, he was appointed Professor of Telugu at the University of London and continued, till his death in 1884, to add to the Telugu dictionaries of the times.
S. MUTHIAH
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