JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XXI. 



The Tamil work consists of 43 chapters of 2,055 quatrains, 

 and was composed by Alavantar Madavappattar of Virai, a 

 village near Vembattur in the Madura district of the Madras 

 Presidency. I have not been able to ascertain his date. He 

 probably lived about three hundred years ago. He is said to 

 have belonged to a family distinguished in literature during 

 many centuries and still holding lands and titles conferred 

 On them by the Pandiyan kings in reward of their merit. 

 A valuable commentary was made on the poem 1 about eighty 

 years ago by Arimachala Svami of Piraisai near Negapatam, 

 who lived in Madras many years and had a great reputation 

 as a teacher of philosophy. The Tamil author and commen- 

 tator are regarded as no mere translators or commentators, 

 but rather as men of spiritual insight confirming by their 

 testimony the truth of the experiences related by Vasishta. 



Vedanta means the end of the Vedas, the most sacred books 

 of the Hindus, and was so called because it taught the 

 ultimate aim and scope of the Vedas. It was in short the Goal 

 of the Law. The Vedanta, as Oriental scholars have pointed 

 out, is the basis of the popular creed of the Hindus of the present 

 day. Of the Vedanta Professor Max Muller, lecturing in 

 March, 1894, at the Royal Institution, London, said: "A 

 philosopher so thoroughly acquainted with all the historical 

 systems of philosophy as Schopenhauer, and certainly not a 

 man given to deal in extravagant praise of any philosophy 

 but his own, delivered his opinion of the Vedanta philosophy 

 as contained in the Upanishads in the following words : — ' In 

 the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating 

 as that of the Upanishads. It has been the solace of my life, 

 it will be the solace of my death.' If (adds Professor Max 

 Muller) these words of Schopenhauer's required any endorse- 

 ment, I should willingly give it as the result of my own 

 experience during a long life devoted to the study of many 

 religions. If philosophy is meant to be a preparation for a 

 happy death or euthanasia, I know of no better preparation 

 for it than the Vedanta philosophy." 



1 The first edition of the Tamil poem and commentary appears to 

 have been printed in 184-3, having previously existed in MS. palm leaf, 

 and is very rare. The two next editions were of 1850 and 1851. 



