types were cut by Joannes Gonsalves, a lay brother of the Jesuits, at Cochin, in 1577 A.D.; and the first dictionary was a Tamil-Portuguese one, printed at Cochin in 1679 A.D.

TAMIL-PORTUGUESE DICTIONARY OF FRANTEM DE PROENCA   

'Sanskrit, Tamil, Malayƒ˜am and Syriac were studies by the Portuguese Jesuits at Ambalacatta with great success, and several important works were printed, of which, however, we have only the names left us, as recorded by F.de Souza and others, and still later by Fr.Paulinus. The Jast tells us that- "Anno 1679 in oppide Ambalacatta in lignum incisialii characteres Tamulici per Ignatium Aichamoni indigenam Malabarensem, iisque in lucem prodiit opus inscriptum:  Vocabulario Tamuelco com a singnificacao portugueza composto pello P. Antem be Pranca da Comp de Jesu, Miss: de Madure."1

DICTIONARIUM TAMULICUM

Of this dictionary by Father Antem de Proenca, no trace is found. Ambalacatta, where it was printed, was destroyed by order of Tippu when his army  invaded Cochin and Travancore. A Dictionarium Tamulicum is said to have been  written by Bartholmaeus Ziegenbalg in the year 1712 and seems never to have been printed.

CATUR-AKARATI

About that time, in 1710 A.D., Father Beschi, better known as V…ramƒ muniver,began, in the heart of the Tamil country, his great missionary labors which he continued right up to his death in 1747. His quick mind perceived the value and the charm of the course of his studies, he felt the need of a reliable dictionary and he prepared the famous Catur-akartƒi. The title of the book,originally published by Mr. J. Vinson, is quite characteristic:  Thesaurum linguae Tamulicae ad pleniorem planioremque scriptorum Tamulensium intelligentiam collegit acquatuor in partes digessit Constantius Josephus Beschius e societate Jesu, in regno Madurensi Missionarius ad usum ejusdem Societatis Missionariorum A.D. MDCCXXXII.

This dictionary broke off completely from the methods of the ancient, indigenous works. Its introductory verse declared that the metrical from of the early nika--u works was purposely abandoned, as it tended to obscurity rather than Clarity. A strictly alphabetical order was followed. In respect of the lexical matter, the ancient 'hard word' tradition was abandoned for the first time and several ordinary words were included. 

Catur-akarƒti means  'Quadruple  Dictionary'. It consists of four parts: the first peyar (noun) gives the several meanings of  every word; the second poru˜ groups together words of the same meaning (synonyms); the third tokai shows the 'subordinate species of the technical and general terms of science and literature', and the fourth to-ai is a rhyming dictionary2. The            

1 Grierson : Linguistic Survey of India, Vol. IV, p. 301, See pp. 306 and 307 for a bibliography of Tamil Dictionaries Published up to 1897.

² Cf.Manipulus Vucabulorum of Peter Levins, 1570.