Ferdinand Kittel was a writer, translator, linguist and lexicographer.
Credit: Basel Mission Archive
A film on the life of Rev Ferdinand Kittel, the German missionary who authored a seminal 70,000-word Kannada-English dictionary, will be screened this weekend, followed by a talk by director Prashant Pandit.
The trilingual film, made in English, Kannada, and German, is titled The Word and the Teacher.
Pandit, a Mysurean, has been fascinated by Kittel since reading about him in school. But during three years of research, he initially struggled to find more information than he had learnt as a child. “Indians don’t believe in documentation,” he says with a laugh. In contrast, Germany proved a treasure trove of historical documents, and Pandit has uncovered “many surprises” for the audience.
He says he’s struck by the contrast between Kittel’s world and today’s. “We live in a post-truth world where words have no fixed meaning,” he says. In light of this, he says it is intriguing to contemplate Kittel’s passionate drive to pin down definitions.
The film uses an atypical first-person narration, constructed from Kittel’s letters and reports. It’s shot on location in south India and Germany, and includes archival footage. The display text features an early Kannada typeface created by Kittel himself and digitised by Pandit. Once widely used in the 1860s, the typeface is now available for public use.
Pandit hopes the film prompts reflection. “Today we are separated by so many boundaries — politics, religion, and language — but Kittel stepped across them all,” he says.
On July 27, 11 am, at Bangalore International Centre, Domlur. Entry free. For details and registration, visit bangaloreinternationalcentre. org