The Gospels in Badaga (BFQGOS)

Overview

The Badaga people are the largest single ethnic group with their own language in the Nilgiri Hills of Tamil Nadu, India. Their settlements, known as “hattis,” are distributed across four taluks: Ooty, Coonoor, Kotagiri, and Kundha. The community has maintained a high standard of literacy and has long engaged with written scripture in their language.

This 1890 publication of the Gospels in Badaga represents one of the earliest Bible translations produced for this community, predating the 2005 New Testament by over a century. The Gospel of Luke from this edition survives and has been digitised; it is now available as a public domain resource via the Internet Archive. This historic translation laid the groundwork for later, more complete scripture work among the Badaga-speaking people.

Language and People

Badaga (ISO 639-3: bfq) is a Dravidian language spoken by approximately 300,000 people in the Nilgiri Hills of Tamil Nadu, India. It is written in the Tamil script.

Publishing and Organizations

Published 1890. Copyright: Public Domain.

References

• Badaga (1890) Luke — Internet Archive - Internet Archive. Historic digitised copy of the 1890 Gospel of Luke in Badaga.
• Badaga Project — IBT Word - IBT Word. Project page for the Badaga Bible translation initiative.
• find.bible entry - find.bible. Bible catalogue entry for BFQGOS.