A TAMIL MALAY MANUSCRIPT. 3L 
adults should know about the right creed and pious works, and 
which I have compiled from books of great, renowned wmdm’s, as 
Al-Ghazali, Al-Nawawi, Muhammad Ibn ‘Arabi, ‘Abdulkarim 
Al-Jabli, ‘Muhammad Ibn Fadlallah, Ahmad Al-Kushashi and 
others, together with a translation into the Ariwi-language for the use 
of whosoever does not fairly understand Arabic. I have named it: 
the great guides im the arranging of tenets, and divided it mto an 
introduction, four paragraphs and a conclusion.” 
Now, every sentence of this dogmatical treatise is followed by 
its rendering into Tamil. The translation therefore is not an inter- 
linear one presenting the equivalents of each separate word and 
every suffix as is often the case in Malaised and Javanised Arabic 
texts, but a connected translation of complete periods, in full 
agreement with the syntax of the idiom used for the translation. 
But, it is almost superfluous to add, the language used shows an 
admixture of Arabic w ords and Persian terms such as is never found 
in non-Islamic Tamil writings. 
The first question which presents itself is: why is the Tamii 
language indicated by the curious term Ariwi??. Evidently, it 
represents the Islamic name for the Tamil idiom. At first sight 
one might be tempted to identify it with Ariwi, the language of 
Arvi in the Wardha Districts. But according to the Imperial 
Gazetteer (XXIV, 368) :—‘‘ about 86 per cent. of the population 
are Hindus and nearly 4 per cent. Muhammedans. ‘The statistics 
of language shows that 79 per cent. of the population speak 
Marathi; of the remainder 13,642 persons (in 1908) probably 
all Muhammedans speak Urdu, 25,7110 Hindi (principally Brah- 
mans and Rajputs), 39,3885 Gondi and 2,428 Telugu.” Arvi 
moreover does not belong to the Tamil area, and counts too small 
a proportion of Moslems among its population to give its name 
to a language used by millions in other parts of India. But, it 
is known that Aruwa is one of the thirteen countries, in which the 
inferior type of Tamil is spoken? (un pays ot Von parle le bas 
tamoul), and although the language of this translation is by no means 
the so-called kodun Tamil (the rude, unpolished form), I am un- 
able to propose a more plausible derivation than that from Aruwa 
with the Arabic ending i. Perhaps a better etymology may be 
given by some authority in Tamil matters; it may be ‘added that 
in Hindustani arwd, being a Dakhni word, means: “of or belong- 
ing to Malabar,’ which nearly indicates the Tamil-speaking 
country. 
1. Arabic Sa) hel but in the translition ee ») ‘arabuppacar 
ariyadawanukku lecyawendi arawippacai kondu oraicceytyappads ee 
korwaiceyden idai perwwaitten ete. 
2. “13 Tamil-nadu (¢!Ji~pen@ Wm) which belong to the country 
wherein Tamil is spoken, i.e. the Cen-tamil-nadu, where elegant Tamil isspoken 
and 12 in which the common language is spoken, as Tenpandi, Kuttam, Ar u- 
wa, Cinam, Matadu etc. 
IR. A: ‘Soe:, No. 85, 1922. 
