About this Item
First and only contemporary edition of the first translation of any portion of the Sikh holy texts into another language; fairly prevalent institutionally but uncommon on the market with no copy traced at auction. Trumpp's work remains the subject of controversy. A refugee from the Revolution of 1848 Trumpp was employed as assistant librarian at East India House. In 1854, he travelled to India at the behest of the Ecclesiastical Mission Society to work on language text books and glossaries for mission work, a rôle characterised by Mandair as "Indologist-cum-missionary" (p. 255). At the recommendation of Robert Needham Cust, a British administrator in the Punjab and devout evangelical, in 1869 Trumpp was commissioned by the India Office to produce a translation and basing himself in Lahore began work. It is unfortunate that Trumpp seems to have lacked any sensitivity to the nuances of Sikhism, having decided early that it was "a waning religion, that will soon belong to history". He took little care to understand it in its own terms, rather imposing his own "theological" structure, and despite the immediate "vociferous rejection of the work by Sikhs" his work does seem to have exercised a lasting influence over subsequent works of translation and interpretation (p.253). However, his influence has not been solely malign: the records he published of his discussions with the granthis at the Golden Temple are an invaluable resource; his decision to publish the Puratan Janam Sakhi made known the earliest recorded biography of Guru Nanak; and more generally, the publication opened up the field to debate among both Sikhs and non-Sikhs, perhaps not least inspiring Max Arthur Macauliffe's rejoinder, The Sikh Religion (1909), "one of the main objects" of which was "to endeavour to make some reparation to the Sikhs for the insults which Trumpp offered to their Gurus and their religion". The complex press work for the book was undertaken by Stephen Austin and Sons of Hertford, founded in 1768 their connection with the East India Company dated back to the printing of Persian examination papers for the East India College in 1842. Subsequently the company became one of Britain's leading printers in Oriental languages, and in 1909 took a member of the Harrison family, of Harrison & Co. the renowned government security printers, onto the board, combining the interests of the two companies. Stephen Austin continue to work in the same areas to the present day. Arvind-Pal S. Mandair, "'The Emergence of Modern 'Sikh Theology': Reassessing the Passage of Ideas from Trumpp to Bhai V r Singh", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 68, 2, 2005. Quarto (268 x 183 mm). pp. xii cxxxviii, 715. Text in English and Gurmukhi. Early 20th-century moderate yellowish brown buckram, gilt lettered on the spine, edges lightly sprinkled moderate red. Ex-?private library, small circular paper press-mark label to tail of spine, ink and pencil accession marking verso of title, no stamps, no bookplate, lightly rubbed, scuff to spine; old paper repair to verso of half-title, pale toning to contents which are marginally a touch brittle in places with one or two short closed splits; overall a well-preserved copy, very good.
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