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Christian Writings

First a little bit about Tamil:

Most of the Christians in the Diocese of Vellore speak Tamil as their first language. There are 247 written characters in the Tamil alphabet. Tamil comes from an Indian family of languages called the Dravidian family. It is one of the official languages of India, Sungapore, Malaysia and Sri Lanka. In 1996 it was the eighteenth most spoken language in the world with over 74,000,000 speakers worldwide. Below is a copy of the Lord's Prayer written in Tamil.

and this is what the first line,"Our Father who art in Heaven", would sound like: Paramantalankalilirukkira enkal pitawe...

Many of the poorest Christians in the Diocese of Vellore do not own their own Bible; they learn the stories and teachings by heart from listening to teachers and preachers and singing songs based on Christian teaching. A Bible in Tamil is a prized possesion and treated with great care. Below is a photograph of a woman reading a Bible in a service at her village church.

In the town churches more people in the better educated congregations will own their own Bible in Tamil.