Telugu Resurgence: C. P. Brown and Cultural Consolidation in Nineteenth-Century South India

Telugu Resurgence: C. P. Brown and Cultural Consolidation in Nineteenth-Century South India. By PETER L. SCHMITTHENNER. New Delhi: MANOHAR, 2001. Pp. 311, maps, tables. Rs. 600.

In this revised version of a doctoral dissertation submitted to the University of Wisconsin in 1991, historian Peter L. Schmitthenner offers a biography of a pioneer scholar of Telugu grammatology, lexicography, language pedagogy, and literature. Charles Philip Brown (1798-1884) provides an interesting example of a civil servant who made major contributions not only to knowledge, but also to the blossoming of a South Indian language and culture. Born in Calcutta, a son of the Anglican Chaplain to the Presidency and Provost of the College of Fort William, he was educated in England from his early teens, following the death of his father, and received, along with his elder brother, training at the East India Company College in Hayleybury. His public service in Madras Presidency was a notable failure, and...