College News

In 1818 there was a breakout of a small pox in Travancore. People mired in superstitions thought that it was the punishment of some angry gods and goddesses. They refused to take vaccination as instructed by the missionaries. The superstition was so rampant that they thought any medicine from the English would contaminate them! Benjamin [...]

Regent of Travancore Royal Family Rani Laxmi Bai had given an island to Col. Munroe in order to do productive activities that would fund the educational facilities in the CMS College. The untimely demise of the Rani Laxmi Bai had made Rani Parvathi Bai as the Regent. By the year 1814 Col. Munroe had resigned [...]

Benjamin Bailey came to Kottayam in 1817 after having sufficient proficiency in Malayalam and the social customs. He was accompanied by his wife, Elizabeth Ella and child. Syrian Christians were enthusiastic in joining the college initially. Bailey started teaching English and Malayalam alike along with the locally recruited teachers to teach Malayalam and Sanskrit. He [...]

Legends and lore say that Benjamin Bailey, as he grew impatient while waiting for the press to come from his home land, he got one press built in the CMS College premises. However, historians dispute this. They say that Bailey used the printing press that came from London in 1821 as a model to indigenously [...]

In 1821 Colonel James Welsh, a Military Officer from the English East India Company visited the CMS College and was impressed by its campus and educational facilities including the well-stocked library. He said that ‘the library containing 2250 elegantly bound volumes of theology, Astronomy, Mathematics and history, in short every other science, English, French, Latin, [...]

Col. Munroe understood the need for establishing a printing press at the CMS College. He understood the efforts taken up by missionaries including Benjamin Bailey. In 1821 the first printing press came from England to the college. With the consignment there were English types and several books. Bailey was involved in translating many English texts [...]

Col. Munroe’s dedicated work in Travancore impressed the CMS and they decided to send more missionaries to the state. Rev. Joseph Fen was a highly acclaimed barrister in England when he decided to take up missionary work in Travancore. In 1818 he accompanied Rev. Henry Baker to Travancore, along with Mrs. Fenn nee Sarah Finch. [...]

Rev. Joseph Peet of the CMS College stands at par with Rev. Benjamin Bailey in his contributions to Malayalam. Rev. Peet was the one who wrote a grammar book for Malayalam language for the first time. The first part of it was published in 1839. Rev. Peet today is remembered for the first book that [...]

The year 1853 was very important for the CMS College. The college was remaining closed for some time and the Madras Corresponding Committee decided to send Rev. Edmund John as the Principal of the college. It was in the same year the subject, Geography was introduced in the Malayalam language. The new text book was [...]

In 1880 August 14th King Visakham Thirunal visited the CMS College. Maharaja Swati Thirunal had visited the College in 1836. Rev. Clement Alfred Neev was the Principal at that time. Maharaja Visakham Thirunal was a Fellow at the Madras University and he had taken a great interest in the overall educational progress of the Travancore [...]