W.H. Drew and John Lazarus

W.H. Drew was a 19th-century Christian missionary and a devoted student of Tamil literature who translated the first 63 chapters of the ancient Tamil text, Thirukkural, into English prose, with the first edition appearing in 1840. John Lazarus (1845–1925), also a Christian missionary and scholar, revised Drew's initial work and completed the English prose translation of the remaining 70 chapters of the Thirukkural in 1885. Together, W.H. Drew and John Lazarus are recognized for producing one of the earliest complete English prose translations of the Thirukkural, making the profound ethical and philosophical couplets of Thiruvalluvar accessible to a wider, non-Tamil speaking audience. Their combined effort, presented in works such as Thirukkural (1330 Kural in Romanized Sanskrit and English Transliteration with Meaning), played a crucial role in disseminating the text's universal teachings.