This dictionary was based in part on manuscript material of the pastor Joseph Knight, of the London Missionary Society, and the Rev.

Samuel Hutchings, of the American mission, and was the most complete dictionary of a modern Indian language published at that time.

At the age of fourteen, he started his career as a store clerk and then established himself in a business in Norwich, Connecticut, where he was employed for two years.

[1][4] During his vacation years at Andover Theological Seminary, he worked as an agent of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) to tour New England and raise funds.

On November 4, 1818, he was ordained by ABCFM at Tabernacle Church, Salem, Massachusetts, together with Pliny Fisk and others.

[1][2][3][4] In 1839 they were joined by the young missionary printer Phineas R. Hunt who sailed from America to take charge of the mission press.

The dictionary was so comprehensive, that it included the astronomical, mythological, astrological, scientific, botanical, and official terms, along with names of gods, authors, and heroes—for this, he received the highest encomiums from the Indian and English press like the Madras Observer; the Madras Times; the Colombo Observer-Statesman; the New York Observer; and more, and also from the literary and official press too.