First copy of Tamil Bible stolen from Saraswathi Mahal Library traced to London

The Idol Wing of CID Police said the Bible lost in 2005 will be retrived soon.

The copy of what is touted as the first Tamil translation of the Bible, which was reportedly stolen from Saraswathi Mahal Library, Thanjavur,  has been traced by Idol Wing CID Police to London.

The theft was first reported in 2005 and later closed without any progress. Now, the case was reopened and reinvestigated by the Idol Wing CID Police officers led by Director-General of Police K.Jayanth Murali. 

The first Tamil translation of the New Testament was printed in 1715 by Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg, a missionary. It was presented to Tulaji Rajah Serfoji by Schwartz, another missionary and a close friend of the King. After the takeover by the Tamil Nadu government, the antiquarian book became an exhibit in the Saraswati Mahal Museum for public viewing. 

On October 10, 2005, the Deputy Administrator of the Serfoji Palace filed a complaint at the Tanjore West Police station alleging the theft of the antique Bible. The case was closed citing that it was not traceable. However in 2017, the Idol Wing CID received a complaint on the disappearance of an antiquarian Bible from Saraswathi Mahal from E. Rajendran and it led to the registration of a case of theft and the Idol Wing CID took up the matter. 

Mr. Jayanth Murali said, “We reviewed the case afresh since there was no headway in the earlier investigation. We intensified the investigation and made headway after a special team was constituted to trace the missing Bible. A perusal of the visitor's register revealed that there had been some foreign visitors to the museum on October 7, 2005, the day the book went missing. Further inquiries revealed that those visitors had come to India to attend a function to commemorate Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg, the Danish missionary, and so when the suspicion was pointed out to the foreign visitors, we launched a search on the websites of various museums in the world, as also collector's websites and organisations connected with Ziegenbalg.

“ After several days of browsing multiple websites of various museums abroad, our officers stumbled on the collection of George III which included thousands of printed books, manuscripts and pamphlets, most of which are rare. Hidden amongst the thousands of books, our officers discovered the stolen Bible, the first translated antiquarian Bible in Tamil that was printed in a printing press at Tharangambadi in the 17th century with the signature of Rajah Serfoji of Tanjore himself. The antiquarian Bible that was available on the website of the King’s collection tallied with the picture of the stolen book. Further enquiries with the concerned confirmed our findings,” said Mr. Murali.