________________
PUBLISHER'S PREFACE This valuable vad-e-mecum of the Common Dialect of the Tamil Language, which was very popular among foreign students of Tamil during the last century, may be considered as a pioneer work on modern lines in the study of Tamil. It has done a great service in expanding the orbit of international understanding of Tamil-culture. This was originally written in Latin by the famous Jesuit missionary, Constantius Joseph Beschi, a great lexi- cographer, grammarian, and poet, who is popularly known -as Viramamunivar, the author of Saturakaradi, Thonnul Vilakkam and Thembavani. A brief acquaintance with the life and achievements of the author, Rev. Father Beschi, will help the reader to appreciate the value of the literary adventure of his, since such a publication in Tamil in those early years, by a Jesuit missionary is no less than an adventure. We therefore reproduse below Benjamin Babington's brief account of Father Beschi, taken from the Tamil manuscripts in this possession and published in the year 1822. "Viramamooni of the great Champion Devotee, as Beschi is surnamed by the Tamuls, was a native of Italy, and one of the religious order of Jesuits. Having been appointed by the Pope to the East India Mission, he arrived in 1700, at the city of Goa, on the Western coast. He thence,proceeded to Avoor, in the district of Trichinopoly, where he studied the Tamil language in both its dialects, as well as the Sanskrit and Teloogoo; and with a view to public employ- ment, which it was ever the Jesuit policy to seek in order to promote their religious views, he made himself master of the Hindostannee and Persian. It is probable that he held political offices in the earlier part of his life, for we can hardly suppose him to have risen at once to the appointment
