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missionary, Hermann Gundert, who had studied theology at the
famous 'Evangelisches Stift' in Tuebingen and most likely had learnt
Sanskrit from Prof Ewald, the predecessor to Prof Roth, upon his
return from South India, presented the first Malayalam manuscripts
to the library. He later became well-known, particularly in Kerala,
for his publication of a Malayalam-English dictionary and for his
Malayalam grammar. Much of the preliminary material he collected
for these publications can still be seen in the University Library in
Tuebingen. He is considered by many particularly in Kerala, the
father of Malayalam Philology. Many of the Malayalam manuscripts
on palm-leaves he had used to collect vocabulary were later
presented to the University Library in Tuebingen. Amongst these is
the Kerala utpatti or Kerala Mahatmyam. This manuscript has been
reproduced by Albrecht Frenz in his volume entitled: 'Hermann
Gundert: Quellen zu seinem Leben und Werk. Ulm: Suddeutsche
Verlagsgesellschaft 1991, pp. 387 – 413. Most of the rare Malayalam
books and manuscripts in Tuebingen are part of the Hermann
Gundert collection. As a former student of the Tuebingen University
and an inmate of the famous Tuebinger Stift he was very much
attached to this university town. He studied here between 1831 and
1835 and took his doctorate in 1835. The records of his academic
career are available in the University Archives and some of these
were displayed during a recent exhibition arranged in connection
with the Hermann Gundert Conference, celebrated in Stuttgart on
the occasion of his hundredth death anniversary in May 1993.
Perhaps of great interest for future editing are the so-called
Tellicherry records, local historical records, which Gundert also
collected and presented to the University Library. They contain more
than 4,000 pages and it was in 1986 that Professor Scaria Zacharia
from SB College, Mahatma Gandhi University in Kerala on the
occasion of his attendance of the World Malayalam conference in
West Berlin, following his intuition, visited the library here. He then
discovered this valuable Gundert-collection and informed the
academic world about it. Since then there has been active collaboration
between the Oriental section of the library, Professor Zacharia and
the organizers of the Hermann Gundert Conference in Stuttgart,
especially, with Albrecht Frenz. The indological section of the
Oriental Department in the library has since also played an active
