Translation of the Bible into Malayalam began in 1806. Church historians say Kayamkulam Philipose Ramban, a scholar from Kayamkulam, translated the Bible from Syriac into Malayalam in 1811 to help the faithful get a better understanding of the scripture. The Manjummal translation is the first Catholic version of the Bible in Malayalam. This is the direct translation from Latin. The four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles were translated by the inmates of the Manjummal Ashram, Fr. Aloysius, Fr. Michael and Fr. Polycarp. The Pancha Granthy came out from Mannanam under the leadership of Nidhirikkal Mani Kathanar in 1924. The Catholic New Testament was published in full in 1940. and has influenced development of the modern language. History The first attempt to translate the Bible into Malayalam was made by Pulikkottil Joseph Ittoop and Kayamkulam Philipose Ramban, with the support of the Rev. Claudius Buchanan and Colin Macaulay. Buchanan was Vice-Principal of the College of Calcutta and had a strong interest in linguistics. He visited South India in the early 19th century and persuaded church leaders to translate biblical manuscripts into Malayalam, with support from local scholars. Claudius Buchannan, persuaded the Ramban to translate the holy book. The Malankara Church authorities in Travancore gave Buchannan, during his visit, a copy of the Bible in Syriac, known in local parlance as Suriyani. Macaulay was the British Resident of Travancore at that time. He actively supported Buchanan, attending meetings with senior church leaders as well as facilitating several audiences with the Mahatajah of Travancore to secure his approval as well. Macaulay also undertook the task of supervising the translators. At that time, Syriac was the liturgical language of Christians in Kerala. By 1807, Ittoop and Ramban—both Malankara Syrian Christian monks—had translated the four gospels from Syriac into Malayalam, assisted by Timapah Pillay. The venue to the translation of Bible into unified and standardized Malayalam vernacular was at Cottayam College" or the "Syrian Seminary" now called as "Old Seminary" or " Orthodox Theological Seminary", Chungom, Kottayam. The College was also privileged to offer the venue of the composition of Malayalam-English, English-Malayalam dictionaries. They then translated the Tamil version by Johann Philipp Fabricius into Malayalam. The Bible Society of India (then an Auxiliary of the British and Foreign Bible Society) paid for 500 copies to be printed in Bombay in 1811. Timapah completed translation of the New Testament in 1813, but this edition