ROTTLER, Johann Peter. Strassburg (Strasbourg) ?.6.1749 — Madras 24/27.1.1836. German Lutheran Missionary and Tamil Scholar in India. Educated at gymnasium and university in Strasbourg, ordained priest 1775 Copenhagen. Arrived at Tranquebar in 1776. Studied Tamil and botany, sent botanical specimens to Erlangen, Paris and especially London (Kew) and became superintendent of Tranquebar botanical garden. For this, Hon. Ph.D. 1795 Erlangen. In 1788 and again 1795-96 visited Ceylon. From 1803 in Madras, from 1808 Secretary and Chaplain of Female Orphan Asylum. Now also began his lexical work. In 1817 quitted the Danish Mission and joined the English Vepery Mission in Madras.Honorary member of Madras Literary Society 1818. Around 1779 married a Dutch widow from Cochin (d. 1827), probably no children.
Publications: A dictionary of the Tamil and English languages. Rev. by W. Taylor and Vencatachala Moodelly. 1-4 in 1. Madras 1834-41.
– Maximes populaires de l’Inde méridionale, traduites et expliquées par Ph. van der Haeghen. 39 p. Lp. 1858 (with Tamil text by J.P.R.).
– A prayer-book translated into Tamil (1821).
Sources: Buckland, Dictionary; T. Foulkes, MJLS 22 (N.S. 6), 1861, 1-17; Mohanavelu 1993, 195f.; Wikipedia calls him Dutch, French Wikipédia French and Russian Vikipedija Danish.
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