Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 23.djvu/54

Rh one called Tîvdrâm, by Sambandhan and two other devotees, Sundaran and Appan. Both these collections have been printed, the former in one, the latter in five volumes. They are rivalled both in religious fervour and in poetical merit by a contemporaneous collection of Vaishṇava hymns, the Nâlâyira-prabandham (also printed at Madras). The third section of it, called Tiruvâymoli, or “Words of the Sacred Mouth,” has lately been published in Telugu characters, with ample commentaries, in ten quartos (Madras, 1875–76). After a period of literary torpor, which lasted nearly two centuries, King Vallabha Deva, better known by his assumed name Ativîrarâma Pâṇdiyan (second half of the 16th century), endeavoured to revive the love of poetry by compositions of his own, the most celebrated of which are the Neiḍadam, a somewhat extravagant imitation of Sri Harsha’s Sanskrit Naishadham, and the Veṛṛivéṛkei, a collection of sententious maxims. Though he had numerous followers, who made this revival the most prolific in the whole history of Tamil literature, none of the compositions of every kind, mainly translations and bombastic imitations of Sanskrit models, have attained to any fame. An exceptional place, however, is occupied by certain Tamil sectarians called śittar (i.e., siddhas or sages), whose mystical poems, especially those contained in the Sivavâkyam, are said to be of singular beauty. Two poems of high merit, composed at the end of the 17th century, also deserve favourable notice—the Nîtinerivilakkam, an ethical treatise by Kumâragurupara Desikan, and the Prabhulingalîlei, a translation from the Canarese of a famous text-book of the Vîra-Saiva sect. See the analysis in W. Taylor’s Catalogue, vol. ii. p. 837—47.

The modern period, which may he said to date from the beginning of the last century, is ushered in by two great poets, one native and the other foreign. Tâyumânavan, a philosopher of the pantheistic school, composed 1453 stanzas (pâdal) which have a high reputation for sublimity both of sentiment and style; and the Italian Jesuit Joseph Beschi (d. 1742), under the name Vîramâmuni, elaborated, on the model of the Chintâmaṇi, a religious epic Témbâvaṇi, which, though marred by blemishes of taste, is classed by native critics among the best productions of their literature. It treats of the history of St Joseph, and has been printed at Pondicherry in three volumes, with a full analysis. English influence has here, as in Bengal and elsewhere in India, greatly tended to create a healthier tone in literature both as to style and sentiment. As one of the best Tamil translations of English books in respect of diction and idiom may be mentioned the Bâlaviyâpârikaḷ, or "Little Merchants," published by the Vernacular Text Society, Madras. P. Percival's collection of Tamil Proverbs (3d ed., 1875) should also be mentioned. The copper-plate grants, commonly called śâsanams, and stone inscriptions in Tamil, many of which have been copied and translated (Archæological Survey of Southern India, vol. iv.; R. Sewell, Lists of the Antiquarian Remains in the Presidency of Madras, vols. i., ii.), are the only authentic historical records. (See also Sir Walter Elliot’s contribution to the International Numismata Orientalia, vol. iii. pt. 2.) As early as the time of the Chinese traveller Hwen Tsang, books were written in southern India on talipot leaves, and Albiruni mentions this custom as quite prevalent in his time (1031). It has not died out even at the present day, though paper imported from Portugal has, during the last three centuries, occasionally been used. Madras is now the largest depository of Tamil palm-leaf MSS., which have been described in Wilson’s Catalogue of the Mackenzie Collection (Calcutta, 1828, 2 vols.), W. Taylor’s Catalogue (Madras, 1857, 3 vols.), and Condaswamy Iyer’s Catalogue (vol. i,, Madras, 1861). The art of printing, however, which was introduced in southern India at an early date, while it has tended to the preservation of many valuable productions of the ancient literature, has also been the means of perpetuating and circulating a deal of literary rubbish and lasciviousness which would much better have remained in the comparatively safe obscurity of manuscript. Dr Burnell has a note in Elements of South Indian Paleography (2d ed., p. 44), from which it appears that in 1578 Tamil types were cut by Father João de Faria, and that a hundred years later a Tamil and Portuguese dictionary was published at Ambalakkâḍu. At present the number of Tamil books (inclusive of newspapers) printed annually far exceeds that of the other Dravidian vernaculars put together. The earliest Tamil version of the New Testament was commenced by the Dutch in Ceylon in 1688; Fabricius’s translation appeared at Tranquebar in 1715. Since then many new translations of the whole Bible have been printed, and some of them have passed through several editions. The German missionary B. Ziegenbalg was the first to make the study of Tamil possible in Europe by the publication of his Grammatica Damulica, which appeared at Halle in 1716. Some time later the Jesuit father Beschi devoted much time and labour to the composition of grammars both of the vulgar and the poetical dialect. The former is treated in his Grammatica Latino-Tamulica, which was written in 1728, but was not printed till eleven years later (Tranquebar, 1739). It was twice reprinted, and two English translations have been published (1831, 1848). His Sen- Tamil Grammar, accessible since 1822 in an English translation by Dr Babington, was printed from his own MS. (Clavis humaniorum litterarum sublimioris Tamulici idiomatis) at Tranquebar in 1878. This work is especially valuable, as the greater portion of it consists of a learned and exhaustive treatise on Tamil prosody and rhetoric. (See, on his other works, Graul’s Reise, vol. iv. p. 327.) There are also grammars by Anderson, Rhenius, Graul (in vol. ii. of his Bibliotheca Tamulica, Leipsic, 1855), Lazarus (Madras, 1878), Pope (4th edition in three parts, London, 1883‒5), and Grammaire Frangaise-Tamouie, by the Abbé Dupuis, Pondicherri, 1863. The last two are by far the best. The India Office library possesses a MS. dictionary and grammar ‘‘par le Rév. Père Dominique” (Pondicherri, 1843), and a copy of a MS. Tamil-Latin dictionary by the celebrated missionary Schwarz, in which 9000 words are explained. About the like number of words are given in the dictionary of Fabricius and Breithaupt (Madras, 1779 and 1809). Rottler’s dictionary, the publication of which was commenced in 1834, is a far more ambitious work. But neither it nor Winslow’s (1862) come up to the standard of Tamil scholarship; the Dictionnaire Tamoul-Français, which appeared at Pondicherri in 2 vols. (1855‒62), is superior to both, just as the Dictionarium Latino- Gallico-Tamulicum {ibid., 1846) excels the various English-Tamil dictionaries which have been published at Madras.

Compare the following works of reference:—A. T. Mondière and J. Vinson in Dictionnaire des Sciences Anthropologiques, s.v, “Dravidiens"; S. C. Chitty, The Tamil Plutarch, Jaffna, 1859; J. Murdoch, Classified Catalogue of Tamil Printed Books, Madras, 1865; C. E. Gover, Folk-Songs of Southern India, Madras, 1871; Bishop Caldwell's Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Languages, 2d ed., London, 1875; Graul’s Reise nach Ostindien, vols. iv. and v.; the quarterly Lists of Books registered in the Madras presidency; [Dr Maclean’s] Manual of the Administration of the Madras Presidency, vols. i. and ii., Madras, 1885, folio; and F. Müller, Grundriss der Sprachwissenschaft, Vienna, 1884, iii. i. 162-246.

 TAMWORTH, a municipal borough and market-town of England, on the borders of Staffordshire and Warwickshire, chiefly in the former, is situated at the junction of the Tame with the Anker, and on branches of the London and North-Western and Midland Railway lines, 7 miles south-east of Lichfield, 20 north-west of Coventry, and 110 north-west of London. The castle, situated on a height above the Anker near its junction with the Tame, is now chiefly of the Jacobean period, but is enclosed by massive ancient walls. It was long the residence of the Saxon kings, and, after being bestowed on the Marmions by William the Conqueror, remained for many years an important fortress. Through the female line of the Marmions it has descended to the Marquis Townshend. Formerly the town was surrounded by a ditch called the King’s Dyke, of which some trace still remains. The church of St Editha, originally founded in the 8th century, was rebuilt, after being burned by the Danes, by Edgar, who made it collegiate, but the present building in the Decorated style was erected after a fire in the 14th century. Since 1870 it has been undergoing restoration at a cost of £10,000. The free grammar school, refounded by Edward VI., was rebuilt in 1677, and again in 1867–68 at a cost of £3000. The other public buildings are the swimming bath and boys’ institute (1885), the town-hall (1701), and the arcade, formerly used as a covered market, but recently obtained by the Salvation Army. The charities include Guy’s almshouses, endowed in 1678 by Thomas Guy, founder of Guy’s Hospital, London, and the cottage hospital with twenty-one beds. Waterworks have recently been erected at a cost of over £25,000. On the "moors" burgesses have rights for cattle. Coal, fireclay, and blue and red brick clay are dug in the neighbourhood; and there are also market gardens. The town possesses a clothing factory, paper-mills, and manufactories of small wares. The population of the municipal borough (area 