Publisher's Preface Ilakkanavilakkam, which is popularly known as Tholkappiyam in parvo, is a standard treatise on Tamil Grammar. containing all the three divisions of Tamil Grammar in three parts. Now,we place before the public the second volume of the third part, dealing with Purathinai of Porulathikaram. We have already placed before the public Ezuthathikaram, ography, and Sollathikaram dealing with letters and words. The remaning parts of Porulathikaram dealing with subject matter, rhetoric, prosody, conventions etc. are already in the press. The author of this work, Vaithianatha Desigar, is a most respected person among the distinguished grammarians of the seventeenth century, coming from a family of Tamil scholars attached to the Dharmapuram monastery; he was for sometimes preceptor to the sons of one of the governors of Madura Naiks in the southern districts. As grammarian, poet, scholar and teacher, he has contributed substantially to the development of sound scholarship in his period, the continued effect of which is discernible even today. When presenting a treatise on Grammar, we think it necessary to say a few words about Grammar in general and its usefulness in directing the mental activities on right lines to achieve the ideal of human nature and to develop it harmoni- ously to the full perfection which it is capable of,
