Kottayam is one of 14 districts in the Indian state of Kerala. Kottayam district comprises six municipal towns: Kottayam, Changanassery, Pala, Erattupetta, Ettumanoor, and Vaikom. It is the only district in Kerala that neither borders the Arabian Sea nor any other states.
Hermann Gundert was a German missionary, scholar, and linguist, as well as the maternal grandfather of German novelist and Nobel laureate Hermann Hesse. Gundert is chiefly known for his contributions as an Indologist, and compiled a Malayalam grammar book, Malayalabhaasha Vyakaranam (1859), in which he developed and constricted the grammar spoken by the Malayalis, nowadays; a Malayalam-English dictionary (1872), and contributed to work on Bible translations into Malayalam. He worked primarily at Tellicherry on the Malabar coast, in present day Kerala, India. Gundert also contributed to the fields of history, geography and astronomy.
The CMS College is the first Western-style college in India.
Chungam is a small junction in Kottayam city in Kerala state, Southern India. The junction borders the Meenachil river, which is one of the medium range rivers, but well known through Arundhati Roy's famous book The God of Small Things. Most of the events in the book took place in Chungam. Aymanam village, which is mentioned in the book, is about three kilometers away from Chungam. The oldest college and school in Kerala and India are here. The road that passes through Chungam is an alternate route to reach Kottayam Medical College.
Kottayam is a city in the Indian state of Kerala, flanked by the Western Ghats on the east and the Vembanad Lake and paddy fields of Kuttanad on the west. It is the district headquarters of Kottayam district, located in south-west Kerala. Kottayam is located in the basin of the Meenachil River at an average elevation of 3 metres (9.8 ft) above sea level, and has a moderate climate. It is located approximately 155 kilometres (96 mi) north of the state capital Thiruvananthapuram.
Karl Gottlieb Pfander (1803–1865), spelt also as Carl Gottlieb Pfander or C.G. Pfander, was a Lutheran Christian priest, missionary and apologist; he served as a missionary in Central Asia and Trans-Caucasus under the Basel Mission, and as a polemicist to the North-Western Provinces of India under the Church Missionary Society. He was known for converting Muslims to Christianity.
Mar Dionysius II, born Pulikkottil Joseph Ittoop was 10th Malankara Metropolitan for nine months until his death on 24 November 1816. He dethroned Mar Thoma IX and succeeded him by the favour of Col.John Munroe, then British Resident of Travancore. Despite the brevity of his reign he made lasting contributions to the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church.
Mar Dionysius III, also known as Punnathra Mar Dionysius and born Kurien was 11th Malankara Metropolitan and Successor to the Holy Apostolic Throne of St.Thomas from 1817 until his death. Dionysius had a long career in the Malankara Church prior to his consecration as Metropolitan. It was his suggestion during the time of Mar Thoma IX to establish the Syrian seminary at Kottayam, Kerala's first educational institution. He also welcomed some of the first missionary teachers who arrived from England to teach in the seminary. In 1816, following the demise of Mar Dionysius II, who had not appointed a successor, Kurien was elected to succeed him as the Malankara Metropolitan by the general assembly of the Church and was ordained as bishop by Geevarghese Mar Philexenos II of the Malabar Independent Syrian Church.
The Orthodox Theological Seminary also known as Old Seminary is a seminary of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. It was founded in 1815 priest-monk Pulikkottil Joseph Ittoop Ramban with help from Colonel John Munro to serve the Malankara Syrian Church and to invite CMS missionaries to teach theology. At that time deacons were ordained as priests without an organized theological education. After the arrival of CMS missionaries, theological education was organized for the priests.
C.M.S Press was the first printing press in Kerala. It was established in 1821 by Rev. Benjamin Baily, a British missionary, at kottayam College, also known as 'Syrian College'. The college was a seat of English general education in the State of Travancore and is regarded as the first locale to start English education" in Kerala and the first to have Englishmen as teachers in 1815 itself. Since the missionaries stayed in the residence of kottayam College, they established the first press in Kerala at 'kottayam College' now called as 'Pazhaya Seminary'or 'Old Seminary' in Chungom, Kottayam.
St. Mary's Orthodox Syrian Church, Kottayam, commonly known as Kottayam Cheriapally, is a Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church located in Kottayam, Kerala, India. Cheriapally meaning ‘small church’, whose appearance contradicts its name, is one of the oldest and well-preserved churches in the state. Cheriapally is located on the way to Kumarakom from Kottayam. The church is dedicated to mother Mary. Kottayam Cheriapally, built in 1579, has retained its old world charm today as well even after so much of environmental changes. The length and breadth of the church is constructed with innovative paintings, mural, and architecture. Before the inception of the Old Seminary in 1815, Kottayam Cheriapally was the Headquarters of the Church and Malankara Metropolitans for a long time.
General John Munro of the H.E.I.C.S was a Scottish soldier and administrator who served as Resident and Diwan of the States of Travancore and Cochin between 1810 and 1819.
The Madhya Kerala Diocese is one of the twenty-four dioceses of the Church of South India covering the central part of Kerala. When the Church of South India was formed on 27 September 1947, the diocese was called the Diocese of Central Travancore. It was a part of the erstwhile Anglican Diocese of Travancore and Cochin founded in 1879. The Diocese was later renamed as Diocese of Madhya Kerala.
Malankara Church of God Thrikkannamangal is a church in Kottarakkara, Kerala, India, originally known as Malankara Poorna Suvisesha Sabha.
Translation of the Bible into Malayalam began in 1806. Church historians say Kayamkulam Philipose Ramban, a scholar from Kayamkulam, translated the Bible from Syriac into Malayalam in 1811 to help the faithful get a better understanding of the scripture. The Manjummal translation is the first Catholic version of the Bible in Malayalam. This is the direct translation from Latin. The four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles were translated by the inmates of the Manjummal Ashram, Fr. Aloysius, Fr. Michael and Fr. Polycarp. The Pancha Granthy came out from Mannanam under the leadership of Nidhirikkal Mani Kathanar in 1924. The Catholic New Testament was published in full in 1940. and has influenced development of the modern language.
Rev. Michael Buckworth Bailey M.A. was a minister of the Church of England.
C. JohnThomas(C.J Thomas) (1918-1960), popularly known as C. J., was an Indian playwright and literary critic of Malayalam literature. He was best known for his plays, Aa Manushyan Nee Thanne, Avan Venndum Varunnu and 1128-il Crime 27 which introduced modernity into Malayalam theatre. He was also a leader of the Vimochana Samaram, an anti-communist uprising against the First E. M. S. Namboodiripad ministry in Kerala.
The Church Missionary Society in India was a branch organisation established by the Church Missionary Society (CMS), which was founded in Britain in 1799 under the name the Society for Missions to Africa and the East, as a mission society working with the Anglican Communion, other Protestants, and Orthodox Christians around the world. In 1812, the British organization was renamed the Church Missionary Society.
Koshy Koshy also spelled as Koshi Koshi (1825–1899) was an Indian Anglican priest and Malayalam novelist.
Saint Thomas Anglicans are the Saint Thomas Christian members of the Church of South India; the self-governing South Indian province of the Anglican Communion. They are among the several different ecclesiastical communities that splintered out of the once undivided Saint Thomas Christians; an ancient Christian community whose origins goes back to the first century missionary activities of Saint Thomas the Apostle, in the present-day South Indian state of Kerala. The Apostle, as legend has it, arrived in Malankara in AD 52.
