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Life and Writings of Father BescM, 



Worlis written in Tamil hy Father Beschi — chiefly intended for the 

 use of the Hindu Christians. 



POEMS. 



1. — Tembavani* — In honour of the Lord Jesus, the blessed Virgin and 

 St. Joseph. He produced in 1726, the sacred poem called Tembavani, 

 which is by far the most vohiminous of his works. It contains 36Io 

 tetrastichs in thirty cantos. To which he added in 1729, to each verse 

 a prose interpretation. The poem comprehends many religious disqui- 

 sitions and explanations, descriptive of true religion, together with one 

 hundred and five historical passages, taken from the old and new Testa- 

 ments. It is a work of such great genius and vast erudition that it is 

 admired by all who read it, not only for the sublimity of the thouglits, 

 and the learning it displays, but also for an elegance and purity of 

 style which, it was imagined, no foreigner could acquire. A talent so 

 felicitous and extraordinary has been ascribed to divine assistance. 



The poets unanimously acknowledged Father Beschi as their tutor, 

 and with his own permission bestowed on him a high and well merited 

 distinction. Instead of Dyrianatha Swami, that is Father Constantine, 

 which was the name he had borne since his arrival in India, they substi- 

 tuted, the title of Viramamuni, or the " Great Champion Devotee." 



Agreeably to the rules of versification laid down in the grammars, 

 the celebrated Tamil poems called Chintamani and Ramayanam, 

 as well as other Indian poems, contain six kinds of rhymes, and these 

 promiscuously used ; but the Tembavani is composed in the first sort 

 of rhymet only, a species of versification difficult to be sustained, but 

 greatly admired for its excellence. With respect to the <sr^^ih or 

 cadence, Viramamuni says in the Shen Tamil Grammar, translated by- 

 Mr. Babington, "On this piinciple, it is very easy to invent new 

 s=^^th or cadences. Those who are unacquainted with this art, ap. 

 plaud the poet Camben, because in his Raraayanam, which contains 

 12,016 stanzas, he has introduced 87 varieties of cadence : but in my 

 poem Tembavani, which contains only 3,615 stanzas, I have without 



• See Ellis's translation of the Cural, pages 17, 23, 25, 35, 45, 50, 88, 100, 101, 141. Vide 

 appendix of this beck. See page 3 of the preface to the Adventures of Gooroo Para- 

 martan, a tale in Tamil, accompanied by a translation of Mr. B. G. Babington, who 

 says " Tembavani, which, vying in length with the Iliad itself, is by far the most celebra- 

 ted and most voluminous of his works. To judge from the only padalara or canto, which 

 I have had an opportunity of reading, where the murder of innocents is described, its 

 merits ate not over-rated." 



i- Vide Mr. B. G. Babington's Shen Tamil Grammar, page 75. If not only the secona 

 syllable of each line in the stanza, but the whole of the first foot, with the exception 

 of the first letter, be the same, the verse is esteemed, in proportion to the difficulty of 



the performance. Thus, if, where (<ffiC5®^) caruvi occurs in the first line, (®C5®^)» 



curuvi (=SVC5®^)» aruvi (^.(tjq?) ooruYi, &c. come ia the other Hues, the verse y^iW 

 "be particularly admired. 



