John Garrett (linguist)

John Garrett was a Wesleyan missionary, who served in India, in the Wesleyan Canarese Mission, at the Bangalore Petah. Garrett was a linguist and a scholar of several languages such as Canarese (Kannada), Sanskrit, Tamil, Persian, German and Latin. Garrett is credited with establishing a printing press, the Wesleyan Mission Press, at Bangalore Petah at around 1841. Garett is also credited with founding the Central High School in 1858, and serving as its first principal, which is now the Central College. Garett also held many designated posts in the Department of Public Instruction, under the Mysore State. His most significant contribution to Kannada literature is said to be the very first translation of the Bhagawat Gita into Kannada in 1846.[1][2]

In Bangalore

John Garrett owned large tracks of land in Bangalore, and some 454 acres of his land was acquired by the British Guardians of the Maharaja of Mysore to build the Bangalore Palace in 1873. Garrett had already built a European styled manor on these grounds in 1862, and this building was further renovated to the Tudor style, and adding more fortifications. The land was acquired for a sum of BIR 23,000 [3][4][5]

Further, Mark Cubbon, the Commissioner of Mysore, acquired 14 acres of land from Garrett. to build his residence the Balabrooie, and this is now the official guesthouse of the Government of Karnataka.[6]

Mary Sophia Garrett, John's daughter married to Benjamin Lewis Rice, an eminent historian, archaeologist and educationist, who also served as the first director of the Mysore State Archaeology Department[6]

Wesleyan Mission Press, Bangalore

John Garrett and Mr. Jenkins were appointed as Canarese missionaries in 1840, and were authorised to start a printing press in the Bangalore Pettah, which was the part of Bangalore under the jurisdiction of the Mysore State. Garrett was a printer by trade before joining the Wesleyan Mission.[2] The press was funded by English gentry and took a few months to complete. Before this, printing in Canarese was done at the Vepery Mission Press, Church Street, outside Madras, which was established in 1779. Even though printing at the Bangalore Press started in 1840, the earliest books in the collection of the British Museum are from 1841. And for the first few years, the books had to be sent to Madras for binding, as the Bangalore Press did not have the facilities in its early years of operation.

Some of the earliest traceable publications of the press are

  • Canarese and English Instructor, or a Help in acquiring a knowledge of the English language. (1841) by an anonymous author, only copy with the British Council Library, New Delhi
  • Katha Manjare. Or, a Collection of Canarese stories (1841) [7][8]

Other publications

  • R A Cole, "An Elementary Grammar of the Coorg Language"[9]
  • An Elementary Grammar of the Kannada, or Canarese Language (1864)[10]
  • A dictionary, Canarese and English (1858)[11]

Notable works
  • 1846, "The Bhagavat-Geeta Or, Dialogues of Krishna and Arjoon, in Eighteen Lectures : Sanscrit, Canarese, and English, in Parallel Columns" [12]
  • 1871, "Classical Dictionary of India: Illustrative of the Mythology Philosophy Literature Antiquities Arts Manners Customs & C. The Hindus"[13]

Sketches

Fellow Wesleyan missionary and linguist Thomas Hodson made several sketches about the life in the Bangalore Petah and Mysore State. One of these paintings at the Museum of Sydney, The Rocks, part of the Caroline Simpson Collection, Clyde Bank, shows the Wesleyan Mission Chapel, re-built by Rev. J Garrett (1846)[14]

See also

References
  1. Madhusudana, K S (17 October 2019). "Reading a rare work: Rev. John Garrett's The BHAGAVAT-GEETA of 1846 in Kannada is a rare multi-lingual version". The Hindu. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
  2. Findlay, D D; Holdsworth, WW (1924). The history of the Wesleyan Methodist missionary society, Volume V. London: The Epworth Press.
  3. "The king of all land parcels". Bangalore Mirror. 5 October 2017. Retrieved 25 August 2022.
  4. Kumar, Manasi Paresh (27 January 2011). "Lord of the manor". Bangalore Mirror. Retrieved 25 August 2022.
  5. "Gone With The Royalty". bengaluru.com. 15 April 2020. Retrieved 25 August 2022.
  6. Shekar, Divya (6 March 2016). "The Balabrooie guest house in Bengaluru reminded the British of the Isle of Man". No. Bangalore. The Economic Times. Retrieved 25 August 2022.
  7. Katha Manjare, Or A Collection of Canarese Stories: With an English Translation and a Brief Canarese & English Vocabulary. Bangalore: Gopal Acharoo. 1841. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
  8. Rhodes, D E (1970). "Printing at Bangalore, 1840-1850". The British Museum Quarterly. 34 (3/4): 83–86. JSTOR 4423049. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
  9. Cole, R A (1867). An Elementary Grammar of the Coorg Language. Bangalore: Wesleyan Mission Press. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
  10. Hodson, T (1864). An Elementary Grammar of Kannada or Canarese Language. Bangalore: Wesleyan Mission Press. ISBN 9785873933433. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
  11. Reeve, William (1858). Sanderson, Daniel (ed.). A Dictionary, Canarese and english. Bangalore: Wesleyan Mission Press. Retrieved 18 January 2017.
  12. Garrett, John (1846). The Bhagavat-Geeta Or, Dialogues of Krishna and Arjoon, in Eighteen Lectures : Sanscrit, Canarese, and English, in Parallel Columns. Bangalore: Wesleyan Mission Press. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
  13. Garrett, John (1871). Classical Dictionary of India: Illustrative of the Mythology Philosophy Literature Antiquities Arts Manners Customs & C. The Hindus (PDF). Bangalore: Wesleyan Mission Press. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
  14. "The Wesleyan Mission Chapel re-built by the Revd. J. Garrett 1846 (Drawn by J Rozario [?] Junior Scholar High School)". Historic House Trust, NSW. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
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