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from the German side, and third, words of Thanks towards the main
persons and institutions involved in Dr Hermann Gundert Conference
at Stuttgart in 1993.
Reminiscences
In 1986 the idea to conduct a Dr Hermann Gundert Conference in
commemoration of Gundert's death centenary came up. At that time
nobody thought it possible that it would conclude so fruitfully. The basis
of all the activities and publications was Hermann Gundert's diary. It was
found in the Steinhaus in Calw (southwest of Germany) and published in
three volumes: Hermann Gundert, Tagebuch aus Malabar 1837-1859
(Diary from Malabar), Stuttgart 1983; Hermann Gundert, Schriften und
Berichte aus Malabar (Writings and Reports from Malabar), Stuttgart
1983; Hermann Gundert, Calwer Tagebuch 1859-1893 (Diary of the
Calw Time), Stuttgart 1986; all of them edited by Albrecht Frenz. The
three volumes were exhibited at the Third World Malayalam Conference
in Berlin in 1986. There a delegate from Kerala, Professor Dr Scaria
Zacharia, now professor at the newly established Sree Sankaracharya
University, found out that Gundert had presented his Malayalam manu
scripts to the University Library of Tuebingen in 1885. When the
conference in Berlin was over he went to Tuebingen along with Albrecht
Frenz. Within three days Scaria Zacharia was able to trace Gundert’s
Malayalam collection and started to catalogize about fifty palm leaf
manuscripts and other manuscripts, mainly written or used by Gundert.
The most important among them were Gundert's first handwritten
Malayalam Grammar of 1839 and all the supplements leading to his
Grammar of 1868, further notebooks and the preliminary work for his
A Malayalam and English Dictionary. The rediscovery of the manu
scripts, among them the Payyannur Pattu and the Tellicherry Records,
was gladly received by the Malayalam media.
After long discussions it was decided to organize a Dr Hermann
Gundert Conference in Stuttgart in 1993, the centenary of Dr Hermann
Gundert's death in Calw. From the very beginning it was clear that it
would be worthwhile to take the financial risk of carrying out the
conference. Many meetings in Kerala and Germany became necessary
for planning the details of the manifold activities: the conference itself,
the exhibition, the First Conference Seminar on Dravidian Studies, the
publication of the Hermann Gundert Series (HGS) consisting of five
volumes of Gundert's main Malayalam works plus his biography in
Malayalam, further in German: Hermann Gundert, Quellen zu seinem
