similar ideas in Tamil. Even as the great Kampan̠ registered his gratitude to his benefactor Caṭaiyappa Vaḷḷal by carving for him an elevated niche in his master-piece - the Rāmāyaṇam - so also Ellis displays his gratitude to his teacher by incorporating Cuvāmināta Piḷḷai’s epic in this commentary of the Kur̠aḷ.¹⁶ Ellis also includes in his work two separate poems of his tutor,¹⁷

Contact with Vētam Paṭṭāpirāma Sastri (Head Master for Hindu Law, Sanskrit and Telugu Languages at the College of Fort St. George) perhaps resulted in Ellis’ knowledge of Telugu, Sanskrit and Hindu Law expanding almost to a remarkable degree. Here again he was deeply indebted to Sastri and hence included Tamil compositions by him in the commentary as examples.¹⁸

Ciṭampara Paṇṭāram was Ellis’ contemporary. The former has been frequently quoted by Ellis which shows us that he was acquainted with the current trends in the Tamil of his day.¹⁹ These allusions to Cuvāmināta Piḷḷai and Ciṭampara Paṇṭāram help the student a great deal in constructing the history of literature of that era.

Ellis has not translated and commented on the entire Kur̠al. He has been selective and discriminative in his choice of the verses and chapters. He limited himself to the first book and even this he did not completely exhaust. “A selection of stanzas from the first thirteen chapters was translated in metre by Mr. F. Ellis, an eminent Madras Civil Servant. The rendering is exceedingly clumsy but is the only blot in a most valuable work. It should be admitted, however, that translation was not Ellis’ object, so much as grammatical analysis and the illustration of Tiruvaḷḷuvar’s ideas by parallel passages from other eminent Tamil Poets. The abrupt cessation of Ellis’ labours in this direction was a great misfortune for Tamil literature.”²⁰ This was Charles E. Gover’s opinion.

16. Ibid. P. 51.

17. Ibid. P. 244.

18. Ibid. P. 285.

19. Ibid. P. 144, 340.

20. Gover, Charles E ; “The Folk-songs of Southern India”. P. 217, 218.