18
மறைமலையம்
―
22
Saint, so that it may serve as a guide to the English knowing students who do not possess a scholarly knowledge of Tamil but who ardently wish to acquaint themselves with the treasures in Tamil literature. It is my belief that those who have imbibed English education can appreciate better the method of historical criticism used in this book than most of the tamil pandits who do not and want not to know what is history, and what is myth.
Finally I wish to call the attention of the reader to the pure Tamil style of the treatise which is entirely free from Sanscrit and other foreign words. Let him judge from it whehter a living and at the same time a very ancient language, which can deal with all the higher aspects of human thought, without borrowing words from any other language, can be called poor and ordinary. Let him remember that Tamil is the only living language on his globe that unites in itself the glories of the vanished past with the culture of the living present. And let him therefore endeavour his best to spread Tamil learning and uplift his Tamil brethren in the social, moral, intellectural and religious culture that is within the easy reach of them all.
The sared Order of love,
pallavaram,
22nd January, 1930.
VEDACHALAM
Footnotes
1.
2.
3.
4.
'Some Contributions of South India to Indian Culture' P.124.
'Vedic India', P.320
Prof. A.B. Keith assigns. "The Arthasastra of Kautilya' to the third century A.D. see his ‘History of Sanscrit Literature' PP.458-462
Dr. Pope indifferentlyn assigns the date of Manickavashakar to the 9th century in on eplace and to the 10th in another. See his English translation of ‘The Thiruvachakam.' P. LXVII and P. LXXV
