The author of this work, Vaithianatha Desigar, is a most respected person among the
distinguished grammarians of the Seventeenth Century, coming from a family of Tamil
scholars attached to the Dharmapuram Monastery; he was for sometime preceptor to the
sons of one of the governors of Madura Naiks in the southern districts. As grammarian,
poet, scholar and teacher, he has contributed substantially to the development of sound
scholarship in his period, the continued effect of which is discernible even to-day.

When presenting a treatise on Grammar, we think it necessary to say a few words
about Grammar in General and its usefulness in directing the mental activities on right lines
to achieve the ideal of human nature and to develop it harmoniously to the full perfection
which it is capable of.

But, at the present context, a detailed introduction giving all particulars about our
language, the grammatical studies in general and in particular and other linguistic information,
seems essential to bring our language and grammatical studies in the proper perspective in
the international academic studies. We reserve this introduction to the last volume of this
work.

We thank the learned editor Thiru. Panditha Vidvan T.V. Gopala Iyer, M.A, B.O.L., for
bringing out a self-contained volume giving all grammatical authorities and parallel citations
which a student would like to know, exactly on the model of the first part.