Agathinaiyal

ii

We are profoundly indebted to Thiru N. Mahalingam, B.Sc., M.I.E. leading industrialist and well-known savant of Tamil for his gift to this Library, of a hand written copy of Ilakkanavilakkam, which along
with a very old printed edition by Thiru C.V. Damodharam Pillai, long out of print and another by Vidvan Thiru Ramalingam son of Thiru Somasundara Desigar has been the main basis of this publication.

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 parallel citations in the original and all aids a student would like to have. We are thankful to our present Librarian, Thiru M. Seeralan who has spared no pains in seeing to the early release of this work. Our thanks are due to Messrs Vetrivel Press for their neat and speedy execution of the printing.

With all our efforts to be perfect we are aware of some deficiencies which would be set aright in the next edition. We shall feel thankful to our friends who would kindly point out the defects in this edition and favour us with suggestion for the improvement of this edition.

We wish to record our gratitude to the Government of Tamil Nadu for their annual publication grant which has made this publication possible.