TWO THOUSAND YEARS OF TAMIL LITERATURE AN ANTHOLOGY With Studies and Translations BY J. M. SOMASUNDARAM PILLAI, B.A.) Babi With a Foreword by Prof, T. P. MEENAKSHISUNDARAM PILLAI, M.A., BL, 4.0.1, Head of the Department of Tamil (Arts.} Annamatal University, Sales Agency: THE SOUTH INDIA SAIVA SIDDHANTA WORKS PUBLISHING SOCIETY (TINNEYELLY) LTD, MADRAS-1, 1959By the Same Author The Great Temple at Tanjore, 2od Edition Paloi, The Sacred Hill of Muruga Tiruchendar— _ The Sca-Sbore Temple of Subramanyam A Pilih for Trruchéndur, The University's Eovirons 2nd Chidambaram, 3rd Edition The Five Tams! Idylts or Pattup-pattu, Cholar-Koylr-Fangal, 4ift Edition Tanjate Trruk-hoyilgal Tillaich-Chitrambalsvan Kolf Sti Rangonathaswart Talavaraluru. PUBLISHER : Jd, M. SOMASUNDARAM PILLAI, 9.4. B.L, ANNAMALAINAGAR, . Author's Copy Rught Reserved, Price Rs. 8-25 nP, Rajan & Co, (Printers) MadravdPREFACE —o— The literature of any country is the mirror of the life and culture of the people and their aspirations. The Tamils had a boary past with a vastness of territory and an abundance of literature, which by the several cataclysms of Nature and of ravages of Time have been lost with but a few remnants that have been saved, The oldest of them—the Sangam Classics—is accepted on all hands to be of about three millenniums old, Such of these and the others that have been produced by subsequent poets and those that followed to the present times form the basis of our literary stock. Thanks to the indefatigable scholarsbip of MM. V. Swami- natha Aiyer, Thamotharam Pillai and others, the cadjans of those classics have been closely examined and printed ; and the Studies and Translations of a few of them by the Rev. H. R. Hoisington, the Rev. Dr. G. U. Pops, V. Kanagasabhai Pillai, P. Sundaram Pillai, J. M. Natlaswami Pillai and others have appeared in periodicals: viz, Journal of the American Oriental Society, The Asiatic Quarterly Review, The Siddhanta Deepika, The Indian Antiquary, The Madras Review, The Christian College Magazines The Tamilion Antiquary and others, The latter bave again become inaccessible, since published in the nineties of the hast century, andlater. Anefforthas however been taken to present in the volume before us, the gleanings of a few; and this is to be followed by the major work TWO THOUSAND YEARS OF TAMIL LITERATURE, shorty to be released. In presenting this Volume to the lovers of Tamil Literature, I have but to tender my cbeisance to the departed souls of great men, who have by their studies and pionecring research left their lasting mark in the miads of generations to come. To the publishers of these periodicals, from whose pages the matter before us have been culled, my sincere thanks are due.