Claudius Buchanan FRSE (12 March 1766 – 9 February 1815) was a Scottish theologian, an ordained minister of the Church of England, and an evangelical missionary for the Church Missionary Society. He served as Vice Provost of the College of Calcutta in India. Early life Buchanan was born in Cambuslang near Glasgow. His father, Alexander Buchanan, was the local schoolmaster in Inverary. He was educated at the University of Glasgow and the Queens' College, Cambridge. He was ordained in 1795 by the Bishop of London. India After holding a chaplaincy in India at Barrackpur (1797–1799), Buchanan was appointed Calcutta chaplain and vice-principal of the college of Fort William. In this capacity he did much to advance Christianity and native education in India, especially by organizing systematic translations of the scriptures. First Malayalam Bible During a visit to Malabar in 1806, present day South-western state of Kerala, he visited Mar Thoma VI, head of the Malankara Church at Angamali, near Kochi. Mar Thoma was very happy to hear Buchanan’s intention of translating the Bible into Malayalam, the local language, and he presented a Syriac Bible said to be of some antiquity to Buchanan. The Bible was subsequently deposited among the Oriental Manuscripts in the public library of the University of Cambridge. Work on translation was started the same year by Pulikkottil Joseph Ittoop and Kayamkulam Philipose Ramban, with further assistance from Colonel (later General) Colin Macaulay. Macaulay was British Resident of Travancore at that time. As well as being a senior administrator, Macaulay was a gifted linguist with a keen personal interest in the Christian and Jewish heritage and communities of Travancore. He actively supported Buchanan, attending meetings with senior church leaders as well as facilitating audiences with the Rajah of Travancore to secure his approval too. Buchanan asked Macaulay to undertake the task of supervising the translators. By early 1808 the manuscript was complete and awaiting printing. In March of that year Buchanan left India for England leaving Macaulay in sole charge of the operation. In January 1806, Buchanan was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He was also created an honorary Doctor of Divinity by Cambridge University. He died in Broxbourne in Herefordshire in 1815 where he was superintending an edition of the Syriac Scriptures (c.f. his extensive memorial inscription). He is buried, along with his wife Mary and two infant children, in the churchyard of