Hermann Gundert
Dr. Hermann Gundert | |
|---|---|
| Born | 4 February 1814 |
| Died | 25 April 1893 (aged 79) |
| Monuments | Gundert Statue, Tellichery |
| Organization | Basel Mission |
| Known for | Proselytizing Christianity, Contributions to Malayalam language |
| Parents |
|
| Relatives | Hermann Hesse (grandson) |
Hermann Gundert (Stuttgart, 4 February 1814 – 25 April 1893) was a German missionary, scholar, and linguist, as well as the maternal grandfather of German novelist and Nobel laureate Hermann Hesse. Gundert is chiefly known for his contributions as an Indologist, and compiled a Malayalam grammar book, Malayalabhaasha Vyakaranam (1859), in which he developed and constricted the grammar spoken by the Malayalis, nowadays; a Malayalam-English dictionary (1872), and contributed to work on Bible translations into Malayalam. He worked primarily at Tellicherry on the Malabar coast, in present day Kerala, India. Gundert also contributed to the fields of history, geography and astronomy. Gundert gave the famous epithet "God's own country" to Kerala seeing the beauty of the land while he traveled from Kunnamkulam to Mangalore on a boat.