# Peter Percival

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{{EngvarB|date=September 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2014}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Peter Percival
| image              = Peter_Percival.jpg
| image_size         = 150px
| birth_date         = {{birth date|df=yes|1803|07|24}}
| birth_place        = 
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1882|07|11|1803|07|24}}
| death_place        = [Yercaud](/source/Yercaud), [Salem district](/source/Administrative_divisions_of_Madras_Presidency), [Madras Presidency](/source/Madras_Presidency),<br/>[British India](/source/British_Raj)<br/>(now [Tamil Nadu](/source/Tamil_Nadu), India)
| death_cause        = 
| resting_place      = 
| resting_place_coordinates = 
| relatives          = [Robert Bruce Foote](/source/Robert_Bruce_Foote), son–in–law
| occupation         = Missionary, religious educator
}}
'''Peter Percival''' (24 July 1803 – 11 July 1882) was a British born [missionary](/source/missionary) and educator who opened religious schools in [Sri Lanka](/source/Sri_Lanka) and [South India](/source/South_India) during the British colonial era.<ref>[http://www.sharmaheritage.com/pdfs/pappu_rbf.pdf Prehistoric Antiquities and Personal Lives: The Untold Story of Robert Bruce Foote], Shanti Pappu, ''Man and Environment'', XXXIII(1): 30–50 (2008), p.36</ref>)  During his stay in [Jaffna](/source/Jaffna), he led the effort to translate the [Authorized King James Version](/source/Authorized_King_James_Version) of Bible into the [Tamil language](/source/Tamil_language), working with the Tamil scholar [Arumuka Navalar](/source/Arumuka_Navalar) – a Shaiva Hindu.<ref>{{Harvnb|Zvelebil|1974|page=235}}</ref> Percival's work influenced [Robert Bruce Foote](/source/Robert_Bruce_Foote). Percival began his career in [British held Sri Lanka](/source/British_Ceylon) and [Bengal](/source/Bengal) as a [Wesleyan](/source/Wesleyan) [Methodist](/source/Methodist) missionary. He was instrumental in starting and upgrading a number of Christian schools within the Jaffna peninsula. After returning to England, he converted to [Anglicanism](/source/Anglicanism). Subsequent to his posting in South India, he severed his association with the Anglican Missionary Society that had sent him to India and worked as an educator in [Presidency College](/source/Madras_Presidency_College) in [Madras Presidency](/source/Madras_Presidency). He published English-Tamil and English-[Telugu](/source/Telugu_language) dictionaries as well as a number of books on Indian culture and religion.  He died in 1882 in [Yercaud](/source/Yercaud) in present-day [Tamil Nadu](/source/Tamil_Nadu).

==Career==

===British Ceylon===
Peter Percival, aged 23, was sent to [Jaffna peninsula](/source/Jaffna_Peninsula) in [British Ceylon](/source/British_Ceylon) (now [Sri Lanka](/source/Sri_Lanka)) in 1826 by the [Wesleyan Methodist Mission](/source/Wesleyan_Methodist_Mission_of_North_Ceylon), with concerns whether his appointment is risky in "an atmosphere of immoral heathenism".<ref name=Methodist33>{{Harvnb|Findlay|Holdsworth|1924|page=33}}</ref> At his arrival the missionary society and its efforts had not produced results expected by their original expectations and goals. A number of previous missionaries had returned to Europe after short stints due to illness.<ref name=Methodist31>{{Harvnb|Findlay|Holdsworth|1924|page=31}}</ref> Percival spent most of his early adult life in Jaffna peninsula until 1851, with a short stint in Bengal (1829–32).<ref name=SGP/>

Percival's views and style brought him conflict with fellow missionaries such as Joseph Roberts. After Roberts left, Percival led the missionary efforts in Jaffna district. Percival, states Findlay's records of the mission, then had conflicts with Ralph Stott. Percival favored Christian schools rather than the direct evangelization approach of Stott. Between 1834 and 1836, his efforts led to the opening of religious schools – including those for girls – and the building of St. Paul's chapel in Jaffna. Some of these schools were later upgraded to colleges.<ref name=Methodist33-36>{{Harvnb|Findlay|Holdsworth|1924|pages=33–36}}</ref> As a Protestant missionary, Percival favored the teaching of Christian texts in the local vernacular (Tamil) rather than English or Portuguese.<ref name=Methodist33-36/>{{sfn|Jones|Hudson|1992|pages=34–38}}

During his tenure as the principal of Jaffna Central College, he hired his former student [Arumuka Navalar](/source/Arumuka_Navalar) as a teacher. They worked together between 1841 and 1848, and collaborated with him to translate the Bible into Tamil.<ref name=Hudson36>{{Harvnb|Jones|Hudson|1992|pages=29, 36–39}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Dennis Hudson|editor=Steven Kaplan|title=Indigenous Responses to Western Christianity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XgzexEv4Y6YC |year=1995|publisher=New York University Press|isbn=978-0-8147-4649-3|pages=96–97}}</ref><ref name=Heidman221>{{Harvnb|Heidman|2001|page=221}}</ref> Percival's preference of education over [evangelism](/source/evangelism) created friction with other Wesleyan missionaries but it also influenced the educational practices of all those who were trying to improve the literary levels of 19th-century Sri Lankan Tamil society.<ref name=Methodist34>{{Harvnb|Findlay|Holdsworth|1924|page=34}}</ref><ref name=Methodist35>{{Harvnb|Findlay|Holdsworth|1924|page=35}}</ref>

===England===
In 1851, he returned to England with the intention of coming back to Ceylon but due to differences with the Methodist hierarchy in London, he renounced Methodism.<ref name=Methodist39>{{Harvnb|Findlay|Holdsworth|1924|page=39}}</ref> In 1852, he was ordained [deacon](/source/deacon) by the [Anglican](/source/Anglican) [Bishop of London](/source/Bishop_of_London). During the next two years, he worked as a lecturer at [St Augustine's College, Canterbury](/source/St_Augustine's_College%2C_Canterbury), teaching a course about India and its religions.<ref name=SGP>{{cite web | title=  Details of PETER PERCIVAL | url=  http://spuddybike.org.uk/familyhistory/madras/priests/detail/priest_3104.html | access-date=  12 November 2011 | archive-date=  24 April 2024 | archive-url=  https://web.archive.org/web/20240424003738/https://spuddybike.org.uk/familyhistory/madras/priests/detail/priest_3104.html | url-status=  dead }}</ref>

===British India===
In 1854, he went to [Madras](/source/Madras), [Madras Presidency](/source/Madras_Presidency) in southern [British India](/source/Company_rule_in_India) with the [Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts](/source/Society_for_the_Propagation_of_the_Gospel_in_Foreign_Parts), an Anglican missionary society. He became an Anglican priest ordained by [Bishop of Madras](/source/Diocese_of_Madras_of_the_Church_of_South_India) in 1855. In 1856 after becoming the [Registrar](/source/Registrar_(education)) of [Madras University](/source/Madras_University) and Professor of [Sanskrit](/source/Sanskrit) and Vernacular Literature in Presidency College, he severed his relationship with the missionary society.<ref name=SGP/><ref name=Missionary131>{{Harvnb|Armstrong|1863|page=131}}</ref>

==Later life==
[[File:Peter percival-6-yercaud-salem-India.jpg|thumb|Grave Peter Percival in the cemetery of the [Holy Trinity Church at Yercaud](/source/Holy_Trinity_Church_at_Yercaud)]]
In India he was known a scholar in Tamil and Telugu.<ref name=Hindu>{{cite web|url=http://www.hindu.com/2009/07/08/stories/2009070855681100.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090712071555/http://www.hindu.com/2009/07/08/stories/2009070855681100.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=12 July 2009|title=The trail of two British innovators in India |date=8 July 2008|work=[The Hindu](/source/The_Hindu)|access-date=15 November 2011}}</ref> After having published the Tamil translation of the Bible, he wrote the book ''Land of the Veda: India Briefly Described in some of its Aspects, Physical, Social, Intellectual and Moral''. His other publications include, a book on Tamil proverbs in English,  English-Tamil and English-Telugu dictionaries, and a  bilingual Tamil and Telugu journal [Dinavartamani](/source/Dinavartamani).<ref name=Hindu/> He also translated into English, Tamil proverbs and the literary work of [Avvaiyar](/source/Avvaiyar_(Sangam_poet)), a Tamil poet.<ref name=Hindu/>

His daughter married pioneering geologist and archaeologist Robert Bruce Foote. Peter Percival and Robert Bruce Foote were lifelong friends and shared their interest in Indian culture, history and linguistics. He retired to the [hill station](/source/hill_station) town of Yercaud and died in 1882.<ref name=Hindu/> Graves of both Peter Percival and Robert Bruce Foote were found in the cemetery of the [Holy Trinity Church at Yercaud](/source/Holy_Trinity_Church_at_Yercaud) in 2009.<ref name=tamilnet>{{cite web|url=http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=29748|title=Graves of Peter Percival, R B Foote, discovered at Yercaud
|date=8 July 2008|publisher=[Tamilnet](/source/Tamilnet)|access-date=15 November 2011}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==Cited literature==
{{Refbegin}}
*{{cite book|last=Armstrong|first=Samuel T|title=The Missionary herald:Volume 59 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Z0UAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA131 |year=1863|publisher=American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
}}
*{{Citation|last1=Findlay|first1=George Gillanders|last2=Holdsworth|first2=William West|title=The history of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society|publisher=London:Epworth Press|url= https://archive.org/stream/historyofwesley05finduoft/historyofwesley05finduoft_djvu.txt|year=1924 | volume = 5 |isbn=1-140-06774-5}}
*{{cite book|last1=Jones|first1=Kenneth W.|last2=Hudson|first2=D. Dennis|title=Religious controversy in British India: dialogues in South Asian languages|year=1992|publisher=[SUNY](/source/SUNY)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EmY9fsUTjwYC |isbn= 0-7914-0828-0 }}
*{{cite book|last=Heidman|first=Eugene|title=From Mission to Church: The Reformed Church in America Mission to India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0A6ruPk7-lcC&pg=PA221 |year=2001|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co|isbn=0-8028-4900-8}}
*{{cite book|last=Zvelebil|first=K.|title=Tamil literature, Volume 10|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OQ33i496MsIC&pg=PA235 |series=A History of Indian literature: Dravidian literatures|year=1974|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag|isbn=978-3-447-01582-0}}
{{Refend}}

==External links==
*[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.283447 ''The land of the Veda'' (1854)]

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Percival, Peter}}
Category:1803 births
Category:1882 deaths
Category:19th-century English educators
Category:English translators
Category:Heads of schools in Sri Lanka
Category:Faculty of Hartley College
Category:Faculty of Jaffna Central College
Category:Linguists of Tamil
Category:Translators of the Bible into Tamil
Category:Wesleyan Methodist Mission, North Ceylon
Category:Methodist missionaries in Sri Lanka
Category:19th-century British translators
Category:English male non-fiction writers
Category:19th-century British male writers
Category:19th-century British writers
Category:English Methodist missionaries
Category:British missionary educators
Category:Methodist missionaries in India
Category:Academic staff of Presidency College, Chennai
Category:British missionary linguists
Category:British missionaries in India
Category:19th-century British biblical scholars

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Peter Percival](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Percival) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Percival?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.