6
❖ மறைமலையம் - 9
cost of printing. In compliance with their request I undertook the task with pleasure and finished it. I take this opportunity to express my thanks to my students of the senior B.A. class for this and many other acts of courtesy and kindness they had extended to
me.
Mullaippattu is an ancient classical Tamil idyll of 103 lines sung in honour of the pandian king Nedunchelian by his court bard Napputhanar. How Nedunchelian, one having gone on a expedition to meet the combined forces of seven powerful kings in the field at Talayalanganam and routed them all in the fierce battle that ensued, returns with feat splendour and magnificence and with trophies of victory to kiss his loveliest wife and how this beautiful maiden that had been left alone in a country villa with a deep sorrow at the separation of her beloved husband, is lying down on her couch her chaste bosom heaving up with a sigh of consolation at his shortly expected return, are all related most vividly and very picturesquely in the poem. The poem is remarkable alike for simplicity of thought, beauty of expression and noble sentiments. The imaginative hold which it has on the mind of the reader is strong and elevating. The interest of the plot is sustained thought out but the poet with great delicacy and subtlety that characterize a master mind. The rhythm and harmony of style vary every now and then and adhere closely to the dignified march of the sense, while the diction, though rugged at times, is one the whole, chaste and elegant replete with genuine elements of Tamil. The Sanscrit words have mingled in it at the rare of two per cent and hence the date of its composition falls about the first century after Christian era.
In commenting on this excellent poem I have followed the main lines of literary criticism inculcated by the able and profound critic professor William minto;; for his critical methods are
