Tamil Nadu Timeline

ReligionEast India Company rule

G. U. Pope begins mission work at Sawyerpuram

· Sawyerpuram

G. U. Pope begins mission work at Sawyerpuram
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In 1839 George Uglow Pope set sail for South India and took up missionary work at Sawyerpuram, close to Thoothukudi.

Sent by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, George Uglow Pope departed for South India in 1839 and reached Sawyerpuram, near what is now Thoothukudi. He had started studying Tamil in England and continued at sea. Ordination came in 1841, and in 1842 he brought out A Catechism of Tamil Grammar. Later a teacher at Thanjavur, he grew into one of the foremost European Tamil scholars, remembered above all for translating the Tirukkural.

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