Tracing the history of the translation of the Bible into the Telugu language-3

Please see Part 1 here (please note the disclaimer at the top).
Please see Part 2 here 

After the death of Des Granges, three branches of Telugu translation work emerged: (i) Pritchett 's translation (ii) Gordon's translation and (iii) Serampore translation.

Augustus Des Granges, regarded as a Biblical scholar, translated three books(that were reviewed and ready to be printed) of the Bible before he moved to the presence of Christ in 1810. In March 1810, John Gordon reached Visakhapatnam after a three year voyage starting in England and through New York. In November 1811, Gordon was joined by Edward Pritchett who was trained and proficient in Latin, Greek and Hebrew. Gordon and Pritchett chose to work separately (for unclear reasons) on translating the New Testament. Pritchett completed his translation of the New Testament; it was verified by Telugu language scholars of the time and printed at Madras in 1819. In 1823, Gordon submitted his version of the Bible (which included a few Old Testament books apart from the New Testament). Initially Gordon's version was preferred over Pritchett's but eventually Pritchett's translation prevailed over Gordon's. Despite some clarity on preference, the Madras Bible Society spent the next couple of decades unable to authorize any single translation.

The third branch of translation work was under the supervision of William Carey. There is little information publicly (on the internet) available about individuals attached to this translation effort but it seems most likely to be the Serampore trio (Carey, Marshman, Ward). They prepared a translation in 1809 which was, unfortunately, lost in the fire of 1812. A new version was published in 1818; few copies of this publication are available in libraries in the USA and the UK.

Texts used: 

• Pritchett's translation: The title for Pritchett's published New Testament indicates that he used the Greek texts as his basis. One record speculates that he might have used the English Authorized Version- which, if he did, seems to be at best a companion basis and not the only underlying text. His translation included books of the Old Testament
• Gordon's translation: Because of the lack of any contradiction, Gordon's underlying texts appear to be the same as Pritchett's. He also translated the New Testament and much of the Old Testament.
• Serampore translation: At least until 1825, Carey was committed to the Received Text. This should place the Textus Receptus as the basis for the New Testament translation of the Serampore version.

The next chapter of this translation history involves how, and if, these three translation streams merged. The burden of this consolidation fell on a committee, whose origins are unclear, at Madras Bible Society. In the long, arduous times of the committee, the exclusive use of the Textus Receptus is contested and there are some very lively discussions on translating terms pertaining to baptism.

(to be continued, Lord Willing...)