THE TELUQU 'COUNTRY r^i 64 \ 1 I /, I :.P;0. OLit-l 5X7' CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES ITHACA. N. Y. 14853 JOHN M. OLIN LIBRARY BV 3280.T4H62 Christian missions in the Telugu country f.P 3 1924 oil 177 197 PARAGON BOOK GALLERY, LTD. "The Oriental Book Store of America" 14 East 38th Street. New York, N.Y. 10016 Tel: (212) 532-4920 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 92401 1 1771 97 TELUGU GIRLS AT S. EBBA S, JIADRAS. CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY BV G. HIBBERT-WARE, M.A. Fellow of the Punjab University MISSIONARY AT KALASAPAD. TELUGU COUNTRY ILLUSTRATED PUBLISHED BY 15 TUFTON STREET, WESTMINSTER, S.W. 1912 NOTE The present volume is issued as a companion volume to the four similar books on Indian and Burmese Missions which the S.P.G. has recently published. Its object is to give a general account of all Christian Missions in the Telugu country and to give in greater detail a sketch of the particular work which the S.P.G. helps to support. The Society is greatly indebted to Mr. Hibbert-Ware for the writing of this book, which we trust may be the means of extending interest in a part of India where Christian missionary work is spreading more rapidly than in almost any other part. Mr. Hibbert-Ware, who went out to India as a missionary in 1898, is a Fellow of the Punjab University and was for some time Principal of S. Stephen's Univer- sity College, Delhi. He is now working at Kalasabad in the Telugu country. We desire also to acknowledge the large amount of help received from the Rev. Canon Inman, who provided most of the material for the two chapters dealing with the history of the Mission ; and to the Rev. A. F. R. Bird, who collected much of the information contained in the book. We are also greatly indebted to the Rev. H. G. Downes and the Rev. A. W. B. Higgens for reading and correcting the proofs after Mr. Hibbert-Ware's return to India. EDITORIAL SECRETARY. S.P.G. House, January 1912. CONTENTS PAGE I. The country and people . i II. The country and people {continued) . 23 III. The S.P.G. Mission ; early period . 51 IV. Malas, Madigas, and Sudras ... 73 V. Methods of work ..... 97 VI. The S.P.G. Mission ; modern period . 115 VII- The Training College and educational SYSTEM ....... 131 VIII. The Evangelistic Band .... 150 IX. Medical work 158 X. Work among women and girls . 165 XI. Church organisation . • 171 XII. Self-support . .178 XIII. The work of the Church Missionary Society 184 XIV. Other Missions in the Telugu Country 196 XV. Review of work done .... 207 Index ....... 215 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Telugu Girls at S. Ebba's, Madras Frontispiece FACING PAGE Map of the Telugu Missions I Daybreak at Kurnool 8 Telegraph posts on the way to Kurnool Shaving the head of a schoolboy 14 A Cornfield in the Telugu Country . 14 Buffaloes in the river Handri, Kurnool 24 A Stone-leader's bandy, Kurnool 24 The way we say ' Good Morning ' at Nandyal 44 A typical school and schoolhouse in the Telugu Country ....... 56 A Bible class at Nandyal .... 72 How cocoanut palms grow in the Kurnool District 80 Community of out-castks (Malas) at Bapanakotkur 80 Basket makers at work : Kurnool District 88 An out-caste's home, Dhone, Kurnool District . 88 Teacher and school children outside Bapanakotkur prayer house .... 98 Out-castes bringing in date-palm leaves to build their prayer house ..... 98 One of our older catechists .... 102 A DOSE OF medicine ...... 102 A BULLOCK BANDY ...... 106 A Missionary's encampment : preparing dinner 106 vil VUl LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE The church at Kalasapad . ii8 The Rev. S. Gnanamuthu . 122 a bazaar in kurnool 126 a toddy bandy going to kurnool market 126 The High School, Nandyal 132 JUNIOR theological CLASS . 134 At the well, Nandyal 138 The teachers at the High School 140 The old church, Nandyal 144 The swimming-place for the High School, Nandyal 146 Evangelising the Telugu Country 152 A Missionary encamped : Kurnool District 152 A Telugu Priest : the first student of Nandyal to be ordained . 156 The two poets of the Evangelistic Band 156 The dispensary, Nandyal ... 158 An Indian priest with his family 158 Girls' Boarding School, Nandyal 164 King's Messengers stitching trousers at Nandyal 166 The S.P.G. girls' day school, Kurnool 168 Teachers and scholars at S.P.G. school, Kurnool 168 A GROUP OF communicants THAT HAVE COME INTO Nandyal for the Christmas Celebration 177 A weaver setting UP THE WARP 180 Telugu Christians : showing modes of wearing hair 188 A Missionary's bungalow in the Telugu Country 188 Communicants of a village congregation on the occasion of a Celebration 208 CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY THE COUNTRY AND PEOPLE ' The name Telugu ' does not stand for a place or a Meaning country, but for a language, for the people and who jelugu speak it. It is derived ultimately from TrUinga, that is, tri, or three, and linga, or lingam, the emblem of the god Shiva. Tradition has it that Shiva descended in the form of a lingam on three mountains, Kalesvaram, SrisaUam, and Bhimesvaram. These, therefore, marked the boundaries of the country called the Trilinga, Telinga, Tenugu, or Telugu country. At the present time the country where Telugu is The spoken city of to extends from the Madras nearly the cJuntry borders of Bengal, comprising the whole of that coast region and stretching far to the west beyond the middle of the Peninsula. The three countries which make up the greater part of this area are known as the Northern Circars, the Ceded Districts, and the Nizam's Dominions. The first two are British, the third is under a native (1300/O.13811) B 2 MISSIONS IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY ruler. The Northern Circars comprise a region about twenty to a hundred miles wide along the coast of the Bay of Bengal. It was ceded in 1757 to the French by the subahdar or governor of the Deccan. After a long struggle on the part of Lord Clive, it was granted by the Delhi court to the East India Company. It was not till 1823, however, that it became to all intents and purposes a British possession. The Ceded Districts came earlier under direct British rule. In 1799, after the fail of Seringapatam, a division of part of the Mysore territories was made between the British and the Nizam. Roughly speaking, the country now known as the districts of Cuddapah, Kurnool, and Bellary, became the portion of the Nizam. As he had to pay a subsidy for the keep of British troops at Hyderabad, he bar- gained to hand back these districts to the British in lieu of payment. From 1800, therefore, this piece of country, known as the Ceded Districts, has been British territory. The Nizam's Dominions, often known as the Hyderabad State, make up the greatest native state of India, having, in 1901, a population of eleven miUions. The formation of the state dates back to the eighteenth century. The governor of the Deccan, known officially as the Nizam ul Mulk, in the early part of that century threw off his allegiance to Delhi, and made himself an independent ruler. During the latter part of the century the Nizam was generally aUied with the British power, and was confirmed by the British in his terri- tories. These meet the Madras Presidency on the east and the Bombay Presidency on the west. The Telugu language is spoken over the eastern half of the country. THE COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 3 The people that speak this langixage are of the The '^^'"p Dravidian race. This is an old race in India : it has people, not been proved that any is older. The origin of the Dravidian peoples is unknown. Theories have been put forward that they entered India from the north-west, from the north-east, and from the south. But none has been satisfactorily established. As far as the evidence goes, they may be looked upon as the aborigines of South India. Their languages form an isolated group, and no connexion wth any other family has been proved. But the Dravidians are an important people, though overshadowed in popular esteem by the Aryans. The contribution of the Indian branch of the Aryan people to the early literature of our race was so great, and the Aryan languages made their way over so wide an area, that it is apt to be overlooked how small a part of India the Aryan race, in anything like purity, occupies. The ethnographical section of the Census Report of 1901 assigns the races broadly as follows : Dravidian, from the south of India to the Ganges at Allahabad, and nearly up to Agra, including much of Bengal ; Scytho- Dravidian, the western side of India as far north as the Indus ; Mongolo-Dravidian, Bengal from Calcutta to Burmah ; Aryo-Dravidian, the United Provinces up to Nepal ; leaving for the Indo-Aryans only Rajputana, the Punjab, and Kashmir. It wiU thus be seen that the Dravidian race, in either a pure or a mixed form, is predominant in India as a whole. And its predominance is seen in other ways. The Dravidians were great agriculturists, while the Aryans, entering India as a military^and conquering race, were not.