Grammar of the Bengalee Language. William Carey. Published by Serampore Mission Press Mission, 1801. The first published work of the Serampore Mission Press was the Bengali New Testament. During the first two decades of the nineteenth century, the college played a crucial role in producing grammars and Lexicons in all the major Indian languages, a task carried out both by Indian and European scholars. The Grammar of the Bengali Language was published on 7 February 1801. The printing of the volume was completed within nine months. William Carey (17 August 1761 – 9 June 1834) was an English Christian missionary, Particular Baptist minister, translator, social reformer and cultural anthropologist who founded the Serampore College and the Serampore University, the first degree-awarding university in India. He went to Calcutta (Kolkata) in 1793, but was forced to leave the British Indian territory by non-Baptist Christian missionaries. He joined the Baptist missionaries in the Danish colony of Frederiksnagar in Serampore. One of his first contributions was to start missionary Schools for the education of the poor. The Asiatic Society commended Carey for “his eminent services in opening the stores of Indian literature to the knowledge of Europe and for his extensive acquaintance with the science, the natural history and botany of this country and his useful contributions, in every branch.” He translated the Hindu classic, the Ramayana, into English, and the Bible into Bengali, Punjabi, Oriya, Assamese, Marathi, Hindi and Sanskrit. William Carey has been called a reformer and illustrious Christian missionary.
Grammar of the Bengalee Language
