Published in 1822, but completed in manuscript form almost 100 years earlier, this work was designed to accompany Beschi's earlier Grammar of Common Tamil. While the latter enabled the student to speak the language, this reissue offers a way into reading Tamil's classical literature with its complexity of thought and technique. One of the earliest and most distinguished pioneers in the field of Tamil studies, C. J. Beschi (1680 1747) was a Jesuit missionary in Madura, as well as a translator and composer of Tamil poetry. Since this treatise was not previously formally printed, this...