1840.] 



Life and Writings of Father Beschi. 



S63 



*' On Amplijication and Embellishment, the third and fifth heads, I 

 shall say nothing ; because my readers are already acquainted with the 

 rhetoric of Europe, to which nothing new is added by the Tamil authors^ 

 As I have also treated fully on the Letters in the grammar of the com- 

 mon Tamil, the remarks which I shall here offer on that subject will be 

 confined to the peculiarities which exist in the superior dialect. This 

 work will, accordingly, be divided into two parts; the first of which will 

 relate to Letters and Words-, the second, to Versification. Under 

 the latter head, I shall take occasion to say something respecting the 

 art of Tamil poetry. 



" In the course of this work, much will be purposely omitted, either 

 as being not of frequent use, or attainable by a little practice: my ob- 

 ject being, merely to explain the first rudiments of the language, and 

 thereby to remove the more -prominent obstacles which oppose its at* 

 tainment, 



" I shall frequently adduce examples from the most esteemed authors j 

 with the view, as well of illustrating the rules which I may lay down^ 

 as of initiating the student into the practice of the language. As many 

 of these examples will appear without the name of the author being annex- 

 ed, it becomes necessary to explain, that the Tamil writers do not usually 

 prefix them to their compositions ; and although the names of some 

 have been handed down to us by their commentators, yet the number 

 of commentaries which have been written on poetical works, is small ; 

 and even in these, the author's name is not always mentioned. For 

 instance, the commentator on the poem Chi?itama7ii speaks in terms of 

 praise of its author, whom he styles the master of all the learned. He 

 may indeed with justice be called the prince of Tamil poets, but of his 

 name the commentator does not inform us. Nor are we to suppose 

 that the work itself is called after its writer j Chintamani being only 

 an appellation bestowed on the hero of the poem, whose name is Sivagan.. 

 In like manner, we learn that the poet so well known under the name 

 of Tiruvalluven, who has left us a work containing 1330 distichs, was 

 of the low tribe of Paray a, but of his real name we are ignorant: for 

 although he had no less than seven commentators, not one of them has 

 mentioned it. Valluven, is the appellation by which soothsayers, and 

 learned men of the Paraya tribe are d-'^^'nguished ; and 2'iru here sig* 

 mifies divine, in the sense in which wl y the divine Plato. Such is 

 the origin of this honorary title, which has now^ come to be used as the 

 real designation of the person to whom it is applied. Again, we have 

 51 collection of moral sentences^ worthy of Seneca himself, written by 

 ft woman, who, if we may believe tradition, was sister to the last men.* 



