The meaning of the Kur̠aḷ has been altered by changing the words.

His books were printed in 1889. It will not be irrelevant here to mention that the entire lot of books by Scot was purchased by the Sethupathy of Ramanathapuram and burnt. A copy or two escaped this fate.²²

Scot was thought to be a European by S. A. Ramaswamy Pulavar. Prof. M. Raghava Iyengar says that he was of mixed birth-an Anglo-Indian.²³

Before the advent of European scholars and the printing press in India, all writing was done chiefly on ōlai - the leaves of the palm tree-with the aid of a sharp, pointed iron stylus. Tanned leather was also used to write upon. The former involved a lot of difficulty and delay since writing on Ōlai had to be done carefully and slowly. One copy alone could be made by a person copying the original and two or more copies could not be written simultaneously. Copies were hence rare and expensive. They were not available to all; only those who could afford the expenses had access to them. The copies were also not easily decipherable. No two copies of the same work were identical. This was pointed out by Rhenius also.²⁴ Interpolations abounded and so did errors. The author's works while being copied by others would undergo changes according to the mood and fancy of the copyists.

We have in the Kamba Rāmayāṇam, which has been published by the Annamalai University under the expert supervision of a Committee, an illustration of the numerous interpolations and the “different readings.”²⁵

22. Swaminatha Iyer, U. V. Vidwan Thyagaraja Chettiar; Chapter 44.

23. (i) Ramaswami Pulavar, S. A. Tamil Pulavar Akara Varicai; Part 2, P. 472.

(ii) Raghava Iyengar, M. Centamil ̣Vaḷartta Tēvarkal ̣, 1948, P. 105.

24. Rhenius, C. T. E. op. cit. Introd. P. 5.

25. Kamban. Kambaramayanam, Annamalai University Edition - See Pāṭa Veṟupātṭu.