The work on the Lexicon commenced in Jan.1913, and dragged on to the very end of 1939, i.e., for a pretty long period of 27 years. The total cost of production of the Lexicon has come to more than Rs. 4,10,000. Yet, it is not a work worthy of its subject and a publication worthy of the University, commensurate with the labour and money expended.

     It is true that the Lexicon has made an advance on the previous exicons in some respects, but, considering the gravity and magnitude of the defects of the Lexicon in regard to certain vitual features of lexicography, it is not to be commended as a stupendous achievement but to be condemned as the most unscientific dictionary ever produced by a University, an outrage upon the Tamil language, literature and culture and a colossal waste of public funds.

     Since the publication of the Lexicon Supplement, I have been criticising the Lexicon both on the platform and in the press. In the year 1955, I published a booklet in English enumerating and amply illustrating almost all the defects and errors of the Lexicon and submitted it as an open report to the Syndicate of the Madras University. Having had no response, I again, published a brochure of the same nature in 1961, but this time in Tamil, and submitted it to the same body, and also distributed copies of the same among the chief professors of Tamil and leaders of outstanding political parties. It has called forth no response in the breast of anybody so far. This reflects well the social and intellectual condition of the present-day Tamilians.

     The defects of the Lexicon are sevenfold, and ramify into nearly forty varieties on the whole, as follows: