Editing Hermann Gundert (section)

==Scholarly work==

[[File:തലശ്ശേരിയിലെ ഗുണ്ടർട്ട് സ്മാരക പ്രതിമ.jpg|thumb|Gundert's statue near [[Thalassery Stadium]]]]

During his stay in Illikunnu near Tellicherry (Thalassery), he published around thirteen books in [[Malayalam language|Malayalam]] including a translation of the Bible, Old Testament from Hebrew and New Testament from Greek.<ref name="gundert">Malayalam-English Dictionary, by Dr. Herman Gundert, 1872. Ed. 3, Published by Sahythia Pravarthaka Sahakarana Sangham, Kerala, 2000. Biography. Pages 7-11</ref> The archives of information he collected from Tellicherry are kept in the University of Tübingen and were collected and compiled by the scholar Dr. Scaria Zacharia as ''Thalassery Rekhakal''.<ref>{{cite book|title=Thalassery Rekhakal|editor=Skaria Zakharia|location=Kottayam|publisher=DC Books}}</ref>

In Kerala, he took a deep interest in the local culture and the Malayalam language, attempting a systematic grammar of the language. This was one of the prominent non-[[Sanskrit]]-based approaches to Indic grammar.  Gundert considered Malayalam to have diverged from Proto-Tamil–Malayalam, or [[Proto-Dravidian]].  Apart from the early inscriptions found on copper and stone, Gundert traced Malayalam to the Rāma Charitam, a poem predating the Sanskrit alphabet.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gundert|first=Hermann|title=A Malayalam and English Dictionary|url=https://archive.org/details/amalayalamanden00gundgoog|year=1872|publisher=C. Stolz for Basel Mission Book Tract Depository|location=Mangalore|page=[https://archive.org/details/amalayalamanden00gundgoog/page/n50 14]}}</ref>

Gundert is highly regarded among linguistic experts and his dictionary has been described as "monumental" in a review of the work on [[Dravidian languages]].<ref>p. 18, [[Bhadriraju Krishnamurti]]. 2003. ''The Dravidian Languages.'' Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0-521-77111-0}}.</ref>