Other Missions in the Telugu Country

English original

OTHER MISSIONS IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY

We shall not attempt to treat of in the Telugu country, but shall select three of them because they come into two, own—namely, the London Missionary Society, and the American Baptist Foreign Missionary Society Dornakal the third, attaching to interest entirely by worked Anglican Church. occupied by The country London Mission- Society lies to the south of our field, and touches it at a number of points. Society, villages and ours are Missions do not meet in the same village. of any place, if Christianised at all, necessarily join one or the other Mission in a body. which is a small town, do the two Missions exist side by It was quite at the start of the Mala movement that side. Missions became intermingled, and the fields in which to extend,

XIV

all the other Missions : actual contact with our and the ; because the special Mission, of organised and a Mission as it in communion with the Indians the London Missionary In parts of the field, indeed, their the two though intermingled, AU the Malas Only in Jammalamadugu, in seeking for is now taken by both to care 196

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LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY

occupy unbroken ground. Within the last two moreover, a fruitful conference has been held between the two which Missions, in each should Mission respect discipline of the other were considered. The L.M.S. work the Telugu country began in 1805, when two missionaries were sent to Vizagapatam. Both died within five years, but were replaced by others. Very valuable work was done in the translation Bible, but the field proved altogether unfruitful beginning, and it was not till 1835 that the first converts Another field was opened at Cuddapah were made. 1822, and here a httle more fruit was the result. first movement the that in district this There were signs of what was coming even Malas began. A few famiUes in a certain village, influenced in 1838. by one man who had been spoken missionary, became convinced and ceased to worship them. It was in 1851 that the Malas first apphed in numbers They came from the district north and to be taught. From Cuddapah. north-west of away, came twenty families, and after eighteen months' were teaching persons forty soon followed by fifty from another village, and these, more by from other again, membered that it was at this very time that the connexion with baptisms in taking place. The same as record, and both persecutions of of

197 years, which within the limits and the boundaries the in Vizaga-

P^^"^>

of the at the Cudda- in It was ^0**' 1 022, among the in prison by a to vanity the idols of of Mala '^""^^'^ ^" forty miles Paidala, They were baptised. be It will re- villages. first Mission were the

S.P.G.

Mission the

S.P.G.

in steady growth, follows.

English original

MISSIONS IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY

198 By 1870 were there regular In teachers. By 1875 numbered 1200. with 1386 baptised The famine of 1877 Out of 5168 enrolled persons no less than terrible force. 1168 were reported famine was over, in South India and in North, there was a great movement towards Christianity. was utterly unable to cope with available, an indefinite number of fresh villages might have been occupied. The London Missionary Society have organised six Cudda- pah and for the carrying on of their work. districts Jammala- madugu. is the largest of these malamadugu. Here they have over eighteen thousand adherents out of a total of nearly twenty-seven thousand entire Telugu the in district nearly the whole become Christian, and only out-of-the-way places which are not easily accessible have been passed over. the work reaches such a stage as this, extra precautions have to be taken to prevent people from coming with unworthy motives. works in favour of a profession of Christianity remnant outside left their children than marriages for gave adhesion. their in work Mission the of pastoral.

twenty-three congregations with the new alone 1873 adherents there were eighty stations, Christians and 3925 catechumens. struck the congregations with dead But or missing. the after widely both distant regions in The L.M.S., like other Missions, Had teachers been it. Much the of Cuddapah and Jam- district In some the parts Mission. of of the Mala community has When The caste system at such a time for the ; it much to make harder find it would be if they As be expected, the will is now mainly in this district

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LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY

In the matter of women's work the L.M.S. have had Work nearly twenty years' start of was begun in 1893, in which year two lady missionaries The arrived. that result is steady supply of well-trained The chief centre for this work is Jammalamadugu, where they have a girls' boarding-school with about a hundred These girls, after passing the primary examina- pupils. retained are the school tion, in course which trains them to be useful in the home and village, and enables them, the undertake the duties of Bible-women. trained, these Bible-women, either with or without the European lady missionary, congregations various in villages, The instruction. influence congregations the spiritual of life great. In another direction also the L.M.S. Mission has shot Work At an early period it came into effective contact ahead. and with the Sudras, tne in were Sudras baptised. 149 congregation was formed, and since then the Sudra work has made great advances. At the present time Sudras are coming forward in considerable numbers to receive Christian instruction. their medical work the L.M.S. and the In Missions came into intimate and pleasant contact.

L.M.S.

central institution is at Jammalamadugu, in which town, above, there is also an S. P. G. Mission-station. The medical

199 Their women's work us. ^"^^"n^.* has had Mission a their Indian women workers. and through put a if otherwise suitable, to When completely the women the of visit and carry on their on the their ivork of been very has gudra? years before five 1890, Sudra 1890 In the first

S.P.G.

Medical ^°'^ The ' admirable the hospital mentioned as is

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MISSIONS IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY

200 work of the L.M.S. was started with the smallest sible equipment by Dr. been up by him has built first he was content to missionaries on their tours, homes, and to dispense medicines from a tent. two rooms doctor's own the in apart Then a for in-patients. the compound in-patients and in for for a dispensary. Next, two small cottages, permanent kind, were put up, patients and of the for patients. Lastly, i8g6, in two the being cottages The hospital was cases. ground, with airy verandahs, and with a wide open space within as well as without. is now and fully equipped with wards, consulting room, operating room, research room, and all that is necessary. is accommodation for fifty-one Properly speaking there good many more patients, but a in verandahs and on floors. and Mrs. Campbell (who a third doctor and one English nurse, assisted by twelve male and female Indian nurses. has also been a medical training institution, inasmuch as a number of students have been taken through a regular course of instruction in order to quahfy them be hospital to assistants. , but most to other Missions. belong to the L.M.S.

pos- T. V. Campbell 1891, and in At in successive stages. accompany the evangelistic people to treat in their Next, bungalow were set tent was large erected a one smaller of a more one the for reception dispensary, the other for in- hospital was opened, the retained specially for dirty on a built large piece of It has had extensions since, and women's men's The kitchens are in out-houses. are sometimes laid The of Dr. staff consists is also a quahfied doctor), and Since 1905 the hospital Some students these of At

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AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONARY SOCIETY

the present time some S.P.G. students are undergoing medical training there. It is account, to give a fair idea of what this hospital has been On the medical side it is widely and deservedly doing. famous, and seek patients its great as two days' journey by rail. patients in a year has reached nearly a thousand, and out-patients fourteen thousand. that of is accomplished than these figures suggest, for the true spirit of Christianity is exhibited in the care taken both of the souls and of the bodies of those who come within its walls. The next Mission that we intend to speak of the American Baptist Foreign of Their chief work is carried on in the country lying to the east of the S.P.G. Mission, but separated from it by the high range of the Eastern Ghauts. in some of the villages of our districts, and as almost are these verts villages in sometimes happens that from the Madigas, it will be found an same village Mala Christians, and an American Baptist congregation of Madiga Christians. The American Baptist Society began work in 1835 By 1844 they had only eight with two missionaries. For many Church members. singularly unsuccessful, and the A conversation which took danger of being abandoned. occasions between on one these of place

201 brief an so in di£6cult, aid from distances as The number of in- But far more is that American Missionary Society, f^^gt^* 1835. It works, however, its con- exclusively drawn in the congregation

S.P.G.

of Mission was the years field was repeatedly in a Jewett,

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MISSIONS IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY

202 missionary—who, after twelve years' labour, was inva- lided home—and his who had learned that they wished to abandon the field, ' I know not what you wiU do. said, gives me my the Lord if needs be, and, to ' we must surely send was the answer, you a Christian burial In 1866, however, a Ongole, to little and from shortly there, This did not take place without preceding signs. began. Among the Madigas, degraded though they were, there Move- ment were men who were amongst and who sought for higher truths from the Hindu gurus the Madigas. One such remarkable man named Ban- or teachers. garapu Thatiah, who had been taught the doctrines of Banga- rapu the Rajayogi sect (a reformed body opposed to caste) by Thatiah. an old woman, learned that God was Spirit,and conceived in his heart a desire to know more of Him, which bore its fruit later in the gratitude with which he accepted the Thatiah himself became Gospel. and some time afterwards, while he was on a tour in the Godavari district in the interests of his trade, he fell in with a Madiga who told him of the missionary and his Thatiah went to the missionary, was teaching. doctrines, and learned to fied with his missionary would, later on, come to Ongole. back and announced to the Rajayogi sect that he was leave them. about to and even his wife, for a time, ceased to care

Board, memorable. Jewett, is But for myself, if health, I wiU go back to Uve, die, among the Telugu.' ' Then,' a man to give ! the American Baptists occupied north the of their station, first movement a great after, dissatisfied with the village cults, as a guru, initiated satis- his joy that a He went They received the news badly, for him.

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AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONARY SOCIETY

Then he went to Ongole to inquire after the new mis- sionary, and was told that none had come. a message to the missionary at NeUore, beseeching him to send a man to Ongole. Soon a missionary arrived at Ongole, and Thatiah, receiving a summons, He was welcomed, and sent out to preach. went to him. He quickly won converts, and became from the early days of the Mission until his death. The movement, of which Thatiah was one visible signs, developed quickly when it had once started. In 1869, after a week of special prayer, there were 573 at Ongole converts alone. communicants. In to 1745 Government constructed, as a relief work, the Bucking- ham The

A.B.F.M.S.

canal. contract for three miles of it, and, by means of preachers and colporteurs, superintended during work of thousands of people. the famine time were a remarkable body of men, and were tested not only as preachers but first sent to prove their mettle by labouring they were with their own hands on the relief works. of accessions followed, but care was taken to discriminate None were allowed, during real converts from unreal. be months, baptised. to fifteen when the famine was well over, the restriction was re- moved, and by the end of that year 9606 persons had been baptised, numbers of them in the Gundlakamma river where water was plentiful. posed that the famine produced the conversions. work was really done before the famine, but the stress

203 So he sent actually a great leader of the Ongole, '^^^' had grown In 1872 these famine the the 1877 of undertook Mission the six months the These preachers during as workers, for Multitudes But in June 1878, is not to be sup- It The

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MISSIONS IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY

204 of that time massed the results of the work together. Since that year the .work has steadily grown, and the American Baptist Mission prominent one. It has been observed fluence of the new movement tends to run on the lines marked out by community of blood. win the distant branches Hindu the society missionary worker as a kind of stratum along which his work may proceed with surprising ease, and in several districts of this Mission the stratum has been practically worked out—in other words, nearly the whole Madiga community have become a new development, the work The Sudras stratum. Christianity of effects themselves coming forward to be instructed. have already been received, and in one district last year were baptised 143 ; greater movement among them. A few figures may be quoted to show the magni- Schools. tude of the work in this part of the Telugu field. Mission supports three high schools for boys—at Ongole, Nellore, and Kurnool—and one for girls at Nellore. normal very has a large students, mostly men, but including a few women also, are trained to be teachers. elementary schools. Hospitals, dispensaries, and they can six the patients year. in

is now, numerically, a very Mission how the in this in- Converts try to their own In of families. sometimes appears caste the to But now comes Christians. lifted on to another is have by been influenced the the Madiga and on are tribe, A number and there are signs a of still The It where about sixty school, There are over six hundred Of five, with hospitals there are sixteen thousand treat The total number Church of

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THE DORNAKAL MISSION

Mission now members throughout the thousand. The Dornakal Mission was, worked and mentioned, started The Indian Church has given more than Christians. it wiU. take up the task of evangelising one proof that India on its own account, apart from European direction, The of which one. this full is carries on the Dornakal which Missionary Society of Tinnevelly. of members of the Anglican Church in Tinnevelly who banded have themselves together It originated in a meeting held at Palamcotta, work. in the Tinnevelly district, in July 1903. service had been two of the year of offers As the intention of the society was not merely to evan- its own within those borders, gelise to what might properly be called a foreign preachers first missionary, who represented a Tamil country, the was branch Church, the of six hundred miles away. of the Telugu country selected was Dornakal, on spot Bezwada and Hyderabad, the Hyderabad Before State. of the missionary had to spend a Uttle time station, Khammamett, the

C.M.S.

of station By 1906 the staff had grown to three Telugu. learn and four local missionaries who Madras, Bishop the of

205 Members, exceeds sixty as we have already Domakal 's^'o"- by Indian entirely the society of title is the Indian Mission This society consists for this special Before the end received. but send to its a part sent 1904 in to The the railway between the Manukota Taluq in proceeding to his at order in to workers. In that year and the visited place

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MISSIONS IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY

2o6 baptised twenty-three converts, remarked were the first converts of the Society since the St. Thomas Christians of the Malabar coast were a real missionary power. the Indian Missionary Society has opened a new of work among the Pulayars of the Western Ghauts, and now has seven TinneveUy missionaries on its roll, mostly Telugu the country. in grown considerably, for, besides the are seventeen Telugu agents, who work in twenty-eight There are now two hundred and forty baptised villages. Christians, and over eight hundred catechumens. we not hope that this successful beginning of the purely Indian missionary venture of our age foreshadows the time when the achievements of the Indian Church throw insignificance the into shall Societies from the West ?

that these first Indian Missionary Since that time field The Dornakal has Mission missionaries, there May first the of efforts all