Appendix D: Notes on Sources and Method

“it seemed good to me also, having traced the course of all things accurately from the first, to write unto thee in order … that thou mightest know the certainty concerning the things wherein thou wast instructed.”

— Luke 1:3-4, ASV

This appendix explains where the story told in this book comes from, how the sources were weighed, and which popular claims have been corrected or qualified. It is written for readers who want to check the story for themselves, and for anyone who will retell it.

Her Own Books

The first source for Amy Carmichael’s life is her own writing. This book has quoted directly only from her books published before 1929, which are in the public domain in the United States, and almost all the quotations come from one of them: Things as They Are: Mission Work in Southern India (London: Morgan and Scott, 1903), the text of which is in the Ochorus library. That book was written from the field in 1901 and 1902, and its account of Preena’s arrival, given under the name Pearl-eyes, is the earliest that survives. Quotations from it have been checked against the Ochorus text, including the later edition’s confirmatory notes and Eugene Stock’s preface.

Her other early books, From Sunrise Land (1895), Overweights of Joy (1906), Lotus Buds (1909), Walker of Tinnevelly (1916) and Ragland, Spiritual Pioneer (1922), are named and described but not quoted. Her later books, including Gold Cord (1932), Rose from Brier (1933) and If (1938), may still be in copyright in some countries, and they are named so that readers can find them, but they are not quoted. Where this book reports the substance of them, it does so in its own words.

Her books must be read as what they are: writing for supporters, shaped by a strong evangelical conviction, often using translated or changed names, and openly selective. She said repeatedly that she was leaving much out. Where this book relies on her account, it says so.

The Biographies

Frank Houghton, Amy Carmichael of Dohnavur (1953), and Elisabeth Elliot, A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael (1987), are the standard lives, and Iain H. Murray, Amy Carmichael: Beauty for Ashes (2015), is a more recent one. All are in copyright. This book has used them, and summaries of them, only as guides to facts and dates, and has neither quoted them nor followed their wording. Several details in this book rest chiefly on them, and are marked in the text with phrases such as “her biographers record”: among them the comet at Harrogate, the fountain in Belfast, the Glasgow convention, the fur gloves in Japan, the cave, the coffee-stained skin, the Muttammal case, the place of her fall, and the story of Raj.

Scholarship and Reference

For the controversy with Stephen Neill, this book has drawn on Dyron B. Daughrity, “A Dissonant Mission: Stephen Neill, Amy Carmichael, and Missionary Conflict in South India,” International Review of Mission (2008). For the history of temple dedication and its abolition, it has drawn on the general literature on the devadasi reform movement in the Madras Presidency, and in particular on the arguments of Davesh Soneji, Unfinished Gestures: Devadasis, Memory, and Modernity in South India (2012), together with standard accounts of the Madras Devadasis (Prevention of Dedication) Act of 1947, Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddy and Moovalur Ramamirtham. Reference works, encyclopedia entries, the Dohnavur Fellowship’s own published material, and the materials of the Welcome Evangelical Church in Belfast have been used for orientation. None of these modern works is reproduced here.

Corrections and Qualifications

The burned hands. Popular accounts say Preena’s hands were branded as a punishment for her first escape. Amy’s 1903 account says that the temple woman burned the child’s fingers for “some childish fault,” after which she ran away to her mother. This book follows the 1903 account.

The date of Preena’s coming. The usual date, 7 March 1901, is that of her being brought to the bungalow; some accounts give 6 March for her escape the evening before. Amy’s own early account gives no date.

“Temple prostitutes.” Popular accounts sometimes say that Amy rescued a thousand temple prostitutes. Most of the children at Dohnavur were infants or small girls, many of them received because they were thought to be in danger of dedication, and many for other reasons. This book avoids the phrase.

The 1947 Act. The dedication of girls to temples was outlawed in the Madras Presidency by the Madras Devadasis (Prevention of Dedication) Act, passed on 9 October 1947, not in 1948 and not for all India at once; other states legislated later. The campaign was led by Indian reformers, and the law should not be credited to Amy Carmichael, though her witness was part of the wider movement.

Her mother’s death. Catherine Carmichael died on 14 July 1913, not in 1912. Thomas Walker died in August 1912 (sources give the 20th or the 24th).

The Welcome Hall. Sources give 1887 or January 1889 for its opening. This book notes both.

Conversion. Most sources give 1883, when she was fifteen; some give 1882.

The fall. Most popular accounts place it at Dohnavur; the biographies place it in a building at Kalakadu being prepared for the work. The date, 24 October 1931, is agreed.

“Missionary life is simply a chance to die.” The saying is widely attributed to Amy Carmichael and gave Elisabeth Elliot her title, but it is seldom given with a source or date, and it is mentioned here as attributed.

Blue eyes and coffee. Both stories are told in popular accounts. The first comes from her own recollection, and the ages given for it vary. The second is consistent with her known practice of wearing Indian dress, but its details are uncertain.

Thirty-five books. Counts of her books vary widely, depending on whether booklets, collections of verse and posthumous compilations are included. This book does not give a number.

What This Book Has Not Done

This book has not invented dialogue, scenes, names, dates or numbers. Where a story rests on one source, it says so. It has not drawn on unpublished archives, and it has not been able to check court records or the Fellowship’s registers. Readers who wish to go further are encouraged to read Amy Carmichael’s own books, beginning with Things as They Are, and the biographies by Houghton and Elliot, and to listen to the Indian voices, Christian and Hindu, who have written about the same years from their own side.

Scripture

All Scripture is quoted from the American Standard Version of 1901, which is in the public domain. Where Amy Carmichael remembered a verse in the Authorised Version and the wording differs, this is noted in the text. The quotations from Scripture inside her own writings are given as she printed them.