Compilation of annotated bibliography for German-Tamil Studies during 1706 - 2006. A digital archives project

This research project will cover a large period of three centuries from 1706 to 2006 i.e. from the year the first German Lutheran Missionary Ziegenbalg arrived in Tamilnadu till the tercentenary commemorative year of 2006. That is, from the times of Ziegenbalg in 1706 till the present times of German Tamil scholars like Arno Lehmann, Thomas Lehmann, Kapp, Ulrike Niklas, Thomas Malten etc. A special type of methodology is to be devised with certain defining parameters. This is about nearly 150 Germans, who came to Tamil Nadu, learnt Tamil language and interacted considerably with the native Tamil people, during the last 300 years.

Their religious activities are to be left out and only their academic, socio-economic, cultural, medical and other allied non-religious activities, interactions and contributions can be gleaned from this proposed project. Bibliographical data from diaries, palmleaves, station registers, travel accounts, books, journals, souvenirs, commemorative volumes, pamphlets, etc. are to be consulted, in which information about these Germans and their contributions to various branches of Tamil Studies can be found out.

The entire project, after successful completion, will be put into an exclusive web portal, thus enabling any concerned research scholar, from anywhere in the world, to know about the bibliographical data of any German Tamil scholar of the last 300 years just at a few sittings, without having to visit inland and overseas repositories, just at a few clicks of the mouse. This will save much time and money, especially for researchers from developing and under-developed countries and also help immensely visually impaired research scholars.