Pavitra Bāhgīpanāchyā vidhisāthīn raga.
The Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England.
Translated into Marathi by the Rev. J. Dixon.
Bombay: Published for the Church Missionary Society. Printed at the American Mission Press, 1835.

Download in Portable Document Format [12.1 MB]
The Psalter [7.5 MB]

Historical introduction

Marathi is a major Indo-Aryan language spoken primarily in India; it is the official language of the state of Maharashtra.

David Griffiths identifies this translation as 107:2 in The Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer 1549-1999 (London: The British Library; New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press, 2002). William Muss-Arnolt discusses the history of this translation and provides biographical details on its translator in Chapter XXX of The Book of Common Prayer among the Nations of the World (1914):

The Liturgy was translated into Marathi [Pavitra Bāhgīpanāchyā vidhisāthīn raga] by the Rev. John Bathurst Dickson (Dixon), Church Missionary Society, Bombay: Printed at the American Mission Press, 1835, 711 pages, 8vo. The Psalter fills up pages 465-711. This latter was also published separately. On the last page are given the names of “T. Graham and Cursetjee Burjorjee, printers.” They printed at the American Mission Press, Bombay. There were also published portions of this translation of the Liturgy, e.g., “The Order of Morning and Evening Prayer, and the Collects, Epistles and Gospels” (288 pages), and” The Order of Morning and Evening Prayer” (54 pages). Bound up with these is usually the Psalter referred to above.

Dickson was a graduate of Islington College and C.M.S. missionary in the Bombay Presidency, stationed at Nazikh, an important centre of Brahman influence in the Deccan. He was also one of the translators of the Old Testament into Marathi, which was finished in 1851 and appeared, in three volumes, after Dickson’s death.

This translation of the Book of Common Prayer was digitized in 2011 by Richard Mammana from a copy of the original provided by Thomas Rae.