Page:The Kural or The Maxims Of Tiruvalluvar.pdf/17

 a half ago the famous Jesuit missionary, Constantius Beschi, who lived in the Tamil country for 42 years, translated the first two parts of the book into Latin. This translation was available only in manuscript until the Rev. G. U. Pope printed it in the notes to his edition. It is this manuscript that Dr Graul is said to have used for his translations of the Kural into German as well as Latin. F. W. Ellis, W. H. Drew, E. J. Robinson, J. Lazarus and the late Rev. G. U. Pope have made translations into English of the whole or portions of the book at various dates between 1820 and 1886. M. Ariel and M. de Dumast have translated some stray portions into French. M. Ariel refers to a translation of the book into French by some author about 1767 which is to be found in the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris, while he himself has published a French translation of Part III. M. Lamairesse has more recently published a complete translation in the same language, which, however, is little better than a bad paraphrase.

As to the English translations with which we are more nearly concerned here, the edition Rh