On this day, William Carey was appointed lecturer at Fort William College, Kolkata, which had been founded by Governor-General Lord Wellesley to educate British civil servants.
Carey, a zealous Baptist missionary, had arrived in Kolkata in 1793. He was appointed as a Fort William teacher, where he was required to teach Bengali, Sanskrit and Marathi, after he had set up the Baptist mission in Serampore.
Carey is remembered as much for his missionary activities as for his contribution to Indian languages. He translated the Bible into several Indian languages, including Bengali, Odia, Marathi, Hindi, Assamese, and Sanskrit.
He edited, with the help of his missionary colleague Joshua Marshman, several grammar texts in Indian languages, including Bengali, Marathi, Sanskrit, Telinga and Bhotia. With Marshman, he wrote dictionaries in Bengali, Sanskrit and Marathi, and authored a translation of The Ramayana. He established a press at Serampore, which was as prolific as him, its publications numbering in lakhs in three decades. He was a staunch critic of the practice of Sati and the Hindu caste system.
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