PREFACE Printed here are a series of six Extension Lectures on a twelfth century Tamil Classic called Kalinkattupparani, which it was my pleasure and privilege to deliver at Pakala during 1965-1966 under the joint auspices of Sri Venkateswara University and the Pakaia Tamil Cankam. Extension lectures, as a means of fulfilment of the public and social functions of a University and its Faculty members and as a means of active contact with the intelligentsia outside its portals, have an importance which can hardly be exaggerated. In this cate, the lectures, as I can testify by my experience, supplied a long-felt desire and need of the Tamiis of Pakaia and places around it. The lectures are a critica exposition of the classic of Jayankontan which is couched in a significant minor mode of Tamil literature cailed Parani, a model classic which, in fact, inaugurated the Parani tradition. I am happy that, thanks to an enlightened gesture of the University administration, the lectures will reach a larger public through print. I take occasion to express my gratitude to the dynamic Vice-Chancellor Dr. D, Jaganatha Reddy and the Members of the Syndicate for arranging for the extension lectures, and later, sponsoring publication of the lectures in book form by the University. I thank the Pakala Tamil Cankam for hosting the lectures, and the lecturer too. Department of Tamil, S, V. üniversity, N. Subbu Reddiar March 31, 1972.
