TALES AND POEMS OF SOUTH INDIA BY EDWARD JEWITT ROBINSON PRINTED IN THE YEAR 1885...
PREFACE. IN this volume is presented, with much diffidence, an improved and enlarged edition of Tamil Wisdom, which was published in 1873. A returned missionary thinks it not impossible thus to serve indirectly the great cause which he may seem to have deserted, and at the same time assist young English gentlemen entering the employment of the Government in India. The youthful evangelist, magistrate, or politician will welcome any revelation of the mental condition and habits of the people whom he is called to benefit. The following tales and poems are not merely entertaining; they are of serious importance, because always in the thoughts and on the lips of the natives of South India and North Ceylon. Headers who may be surprised to meet with not a little sacred truth in the heathen writings here unfolded, will remember that wisdom, like the sun, has travelled from the East. A comparison of Tamil sayings with the precepts and proverbs of Holy Writ would tend to show that the fountain of the water of life has supplied the world, in streams coloured by the ages and countries through which they have flowed. It is interesting to find in Tamil a few of the fables commonly ascribed to JEsop. To those acquainted with the treasures which the language contains, it may seem strange that Panjatantliiraklcathay, Stories of Five Devices, has not been drawn upon for this anthology. The work in its Tamil form is so considerable as to merit separate attention ; but it is supposed to be of Sanscrit origin. It appears to have been the source whence Bidpai or Pilpai derived his fables. For centuries it has been translated, more or less closely and fully, not only into all the Indian and other Eastern languages, but into most of the tongues of Christendom. Perhaps it is better known to Europeans in the selection from it entitled, Hitopadesa, Good Doctrine. The tales of India are originally concise. How capable they are of amplification and adornment may be seen in Miss Frere's Old Deccan Days, "Alfred Crowquill's "The writer gladly acknowledges his indebtedness to the following works : The Cural. By Mr. Ellis. Madras.
The Cural. By the Eev. W. H. Drew. Madras, 1840 and 1852. Latin Translation of the Cural. By Dr. GrauL Leipzig, 1865. Atthi-soodi. By the Eev. J. Sugden, B.A. Bangalore, 1848. The Nlthi - ncri - vilaccam. By H. Stokes, Esq. Madras, 1830. The Folk-Songs of Southern India By Charles E. Gover. London and Madras, 1872. If the Kev. John Kilner had not commended the author for returning to what he was pleased to call his first love, this task might not have been completed. The writer is therefore grateful to his old friend, whom he had the honour to welcome to Jaffna, and further thanks him for a timely copy of Graul's Valluvar. Gooroo Simple, and articles in periodical literature. The stories translated in the present volume are without mixture or dilution.