Protestant work in India opened not with an army of agencies but with two young German pietists, sent under the Danish crown to a small leased trading post on the Tamil coast. They reached Tranquebar in 1706 and set themselves first to the language, building word-lists and a grammar so the Bible could be read in Tamil rather than merely preached at people. Backed from Halle and from London's SPCK, the mission passed hand to hand for generations, reaching Thanjavur and beyond.
They were like the first lamp lit on an unlit shore — small, and easy to miss, but every later light on that coast was kindled from it.
- First Protestant mission to set foot in India, landing at the rented Danish enclave of Tranquebar in July 1706
- Produced Tamil dictionaries and a grammar within a couple of years of arriving, and printed Scripture in locally cast type
- Carried by a chain of Halle-trained men — Ziegenbalg, then Schultz and Fabricius at Madras, then Schwartz in Thanjavur — across most of a century
Sources: frykenberg-christianity-india p.180 · frykenberg-christianity-india p.182 · frykenberg-christianity-india p.184 · neill-history-1707-1858 p.50 · neill-history-1707-1858 p.52