as one of the most interesting contributions to the knowledge of the people of Southern India, that have yet appeared.⁸⁶ Caldwell has not missed saying, “that the defects of the book are the shadows of its most conspicuous merits.”⁸⁷

Proverbs

Like folk songs the authors of proverbs are unknown. They have existed from time immemorial and are crisp, often rhyming pieces of advice. They have also been orally transmitted and to this day they are aptly quoted most frequently during daily occurrences by all.

Collecting Tamil proverbs is not new to the Tamils. One among the “Eighteen Didactic Poems” is “Paḻamoḻi nāṉūṟu” written by muṉṟuṟaiyaraiyār. The author has collected about 400 Tamil proverbs and has composed for each, a poem of one stanza in the Veṇpā metre. The proverb is present at the termination of the Veṇpa and the previous lines either explain or declare the circumstances from which the proverb probably originated.

Rev. P. Percival comes next, but he has given an English rendering of them and has explained occasionally these proverbs. In the first edition, Percival says, “that the translation conveys the sense of the original although not always with its force nor with the elegance that might be desired.”⁸⁸

In the later edition, he declares that he found it difficult to ascertain the meaning of the Tamil Proverbs in some instances, “and in many the application is equally puzzling.” When he approached natives for further explanation, some misled him who instead of pleading ignorance conjectured a guess.

Precival originally collected proverbs in Bengali and published them, from Calcutta. In his first collection of Tamil proverbs, there were 1,900 proverbs and it was published in 1842. He also

86. Ibid.

87. Ibid.

88. P. T. P. First Edition 1842, Preface