field also significant service and his name has come to stay in Tamilnad.

7. REV. W. H. DREW

Rev. Drew studied Tamil under the famous Ramanujakavirayar. He prevailed on the latter to write a brief commentary on the Nan̠n̠ūl. Ramanujakavirayar sings about Drew in this work in a couple of lines, thus:-

‘இல்லையாந் தன்னிகரென உலகோது றூஉம்
முல்லையாந் துருவெனும் ஒளி கொள் போதகன்’

Many pamphlets advocating the Christian religion were published by him.

Drew had a very esteemed opinion of his tutor and he bemoans the loss of Ramanujakavirayar in the following way, “His thorough knowledge of the language, the native vigour of his mind, his power of long continued patient labour, his delight in work, together with his manliness and integrity of character so remarkable in a Hindu, made him to me a helper in my Tamil studies and pursuits, whose value I could not over-estimate. But he is gone, and I shall enjoy his aid no more. Oh! that I could feel that he has passed, from this world to a better. ”¹¹

Drew was a “Devout man, a zealous missionary, a man of culture and a devoted student of Tamil….. His edition of the Kuṟaḷ, a great Tamil classic, though he did not live to complete the work placed him in the first rank of European Tamil scholars…. I derived much benefit from the stimulus to Tamil studies that I received from my daily intercourse with Mr. Drew” (Bishop Caldwell’s Reminiscences 1894, Page 52).

8. FRANCIS WHYTE ELLIS

Francis Whyte Ellis arrived in India in 1796. He was a member of the Madras Civil Service, Unlike Beschi, Pope and Caldwell he was not a missionary but an administrator serving

11. Drew, Kuraḷ of Valluvar: Preface; II edition.