WALTHER, Christoph Theodosius (Ñānavālutār). Schildberg in Neumark, Pomerania (now Golenice in Poland) 20.12.1699 — Dresden 29.4.1741. German Missionary and Precursor of Indology in India. Son of a minister, lost early his father and was educated by his maternal grandfather. After gymnasium in Stargard worked as teacher and studied from 1720 theology at Halle. Ordained 1724 in Copenhagen. In 1725-39 missionary in Tranquebar. After repeated illnesses returned to Copenhagen, where the king provided him with an office. In 1741 he went to Germany to visit friends, got fever in Dresden and died soon. Married 1728 Anna Christina Brochmann (d. 1735), daughter of a Danish official in Tranquebar, their five children all died in early age. His many manuscripts and letters are preserved by Franckesche Stiftungen in Halle.
Publications: Diss. on Hebrew under C. B. Michaelis. Halle 1724.
– “Doctrina temporum Indica ex libris Indicis et Brahmanum institutione a C.CI).IC CCXXXIII Trangambariae digesta simul cum paralipomenis recentioribus”, appendix to T. S. Bayer’s Historia regni Graecorum Bactrianae. St.P. 1738.
– Observationes grammaticae quibus linguae Tamulicae idioma vulgare illustratur. Tranquebar 1739 (an appendix to Beschi’s grammar, which he published).
– Sn ecclesiastical history in Tamil or Malayalam (“in malabarischer Sprache”), some further religious writings in Tamil.
Sources: F. Babinger, T. S. Bayer. 1915, 31f. (note); V. Hantzsch, A.D.B. 54, 1908, 789-791; *C. Schöttgen, Vita et agon viri admodum reverendi C.T.W. Halle 1743; Mohanavelu 1993, 194f.; R. Pach 2012 in personalschriften.de; German Wikipedia.
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