First Tamil Bible, Stolen From Thanjavur, Traced to London Museum

CHENNAI, (IANS) – The Tamil Nadu Police’s Idol Wing has traced the 300-year-old, world’s first printed Bible translation in Tamil, stolen from Thanjavur to the King George III Museum in London.

The state has commenced the process to bring the Bible back to India. An officer said that the Bible was stolen from Saraswathi Mahal Library in Thanjavur in 2005 and the theft is suspected to be the handiwork of a group of foreigners who had visited the library.

The deputy administrator of Serfoji Palace in Thanjavur filed a complaint about the theft in 2005. The idol wing received the complaint in 2017 and a separate team was set up in 2020.

It was found that on October 7, 2005, the library had hosted a group of foreigners.

The visitors had come to India to attend a function to commemorate Bartholomeus Ziegenbalg, the Danish missionary who had printed the Bible.

An officer with the Idol Wing then scanned all the websites of libraries and private collectors associated with Ziegenbalg manuscripts and stumbled upon at King George III Museum.

They were able to find the stolen first Tamil translation that was printed at a printing press in Tharangambadi in the 17th century and could match the stolen Bible with the one at the museum.

The King of Denmark had sent Ziegenbalg to Tamil Nadu, and he arrived in Tranquebar (The anglicized name of Tharangambadi), which was then a Danish colony close to Nagapattinam, in 1706.

The Protestant missionary translated the New Testament into Tamil in 1715. After his demise, another missionary Schwartz handed over the first copy of the Bible to Tulaji Rajah Serfoji, the then ruler of Tanjavur.

The Tamil Nadu government had kept this antique as an exhibit at Saraswathi Mahal Library.

The Idol Wing, in its statement said: “The value of the Bible is further enhanced as the cover of this antique piece bears the signature of the then King of Tanjavur, Serfoji.”