300-Year-Old Book, Stolen from an Indian Library and Found in the British Library, Returned

We regularly hear stories about books that are stolen or lost from libraries. So, it is nice to occasionally hear the “found” half of lost and found. Here is such a story that ranges from England to India.

Literature has been written in Tamil since before the times when Jesus walked the Earth, but no Bibles were written in that language until the 18^th century. Christianity was not a native faith to India so it had to wait for missionaries to arrive. You might have thought it would be sooner as Tamil is the official language of India. Then again, India has 22 official languages. It must have been a nightmare for the missionaries.

Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg was born in 1682 and arrived in India in 1706. He was responding to a call from the King of Denmark for missionaries. He landed in Tranquebar, a small Danish colony on the east coast in today's province of Tamil Nadu. He built a small press where he printed various items. At some point, he took on the task of translating the Bible to Tamil. He managed to translate all of the New Testament and the Hebrew Bible through the Book of Ruth. He died in 1719 at the age of 37.

Ziegenbalg's Bible is believed to have passed to another missionary, name of Schwartz (there were a couple of missionary Schwartzes so it is not clear who). He then turned it over to Tulaji Rajah Serfogi, then the ruler of Tamil Nadu. Finally, it was passed on to the Saraswathi Mahal Library in Tanjore, Tamil Nadu.

It was there for a long time, all the way until 2005. Then it disappeared. The library searched, but didn't find it. They have tens of thousands of books there, so maybe this one was not their highest priority. They gave up. The police closed the case, unsolved. However, a complaint was lodged in 2017 and a greater effort was made. They discovered a group of foreigners had come to the library in 2005 at the same time the book disappeared. Evidently, not all that many foreigners visit the Saraswathi Mahal Library. It was suspicious. The officers began searching online through the inventories of foreign libraries. They found their match. It was not expected.

It was found in the King's Library, part of the British Library. The King's Library was formed from the collection of George III. Americans might believe George III was the kind of guy who would pilfer someone's book. They despise him. He was the British King Americans revolted against. However, we are convinced that this is at least one misdeed that cannot be blamed on George. He died in 1820 and the book was where it was supposed to be until 2005. Someone else did it on his library's behalf. If who that person or persons are is known, it had not been revealed as of this writing. What was revealed at this time is that the Tamil translated Bible will soon be on its way back home to the Saraswathi Mahal Library. It will be put on display and hopefully they will do a better job of protecting it this time.

Addendum: It was later reported that the foreign visitors obtained the Bible by bribing one of the members of the staff.

In a different sort of return of stolen books, Germany has returned five books to a descendant of Georges Mandel. They were stolen from Mandel's library in 1940 by German soldiers. Mandel had served several roles in the French government in the 1930s and adamantly opposed surrender after Germany invaded France. He could have escaped from France on the plane with de Gaulle but chose to stay and join the resistance. The collaborationist Vichy government arrested Mandel, sentenced him to life in prison, turned him over to the Gestapo which sent him to a concentration camp, and was then returned to France to be executed by the Vichy government as retaliation for the assassination of a German official. Instead, a French paramilitary force took him away and executed him.

Mandel, no surprise, is regarded as a French hero. Still, some of his books remained in German libraries all these years. In a recent ceremony in France, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne welcomed the return of Mandel's books.