A Survey of Tamil Christian writings in European libraries

Extract

What are the primary sources for the early history of the Tranquebar mission? One depends on Danish, German and English sources, in that order of priority, because the mission was initiated by the King of Denmark, executed by German missionaries and financially supported by the English. The history of Christianity in India, however, is not equivalent to the history of mission boards and missionaries, though these are necessary components of a true understanding of the history of the Church. To be fair, equal importance should be given to the Tamil sources which have been underestimated by historians. The first step must be to collect them, for there is evidence that they were neglected from the very beginning of the mission in Tamilnadu