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2 AUTHOR'S PREFACE In this region there are two dialects of the Tamul Lan- guage: I would call one the High, the other the Common, which differs from the But since we see the much in those writings Some not very correctly call that Common, the Poetical dialect. Tamulians use that dialect, not so which have the trammels of metre, as in all others which by the old authors skilled in this tongue are composed in prose also, which is especially to be seen in the commentaries of the poets, that dialect will be better named the more elegant, or high, than the poetic. The Tamulians however call this high dialect செந்தமிழ், and the Common கொடுந்தமிழ்: as if they would call that the elegant Tamil dialect, this the rough. As I intend hereafter by God's grace to publish a Grammar and Lexicon of the high dialect of the language, I shall here treat only of the rough or Common idiom of the Tamul Language. But since I ought to instruct you, Religious Candidates of this language, not such of you only as are youths, but you too who are masters of the higher faculties; that going forth in this very discipline as Masters instead of learners, having finished the study of this Grammar, you may be able to teach others; I shall add, to the several modes of speaking, the root from which they are wont to sprout; whence you may at once be able to drink purer water from the fountain, and yourselves to search out similar things. And, certainly, those things of which we can give no reason, although we arrive at them by experience, we can by no means boast that we know: nay, even the parrot can falsely boast that it knows many things. I shall mention some things which will seem to differ from the old Grammar: others which will appear to contradict
