Tamil Proverbs/Preface to the Second Edition
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
A few words on the history of the book now offered to the Public in an enlarged form may not be out of place in the Preface to the Second Edition.
Almost immediately after my arriva in this country in 1826, I entered on my Missionary work among the Tamil people, having acquired the rudiments of their language in England from a gentleman who had spent several years in the South of India and North Ceylon. Intercourse with the natives afforded me ample opportunities of becoming acquainted with their modes of thought and expression, and, noticing their predilection for proverbial sayings, I was led to an early study and use of Tamil proverbs.
In 1830 I was removed to Bengal. There I became acquainted with a clergyman who had, like myself, turned his attention to the proverbs of the people among whom he dwelt. He collected a considerable number of Bengali proverbs, and published them, with an English translation, in a small volume, printed at the Press connected with Bishop's College, Calcutta. When the Mission in Bengal with which I was connected was withdrawn, I returned to my former sphere of labor among the Tamil people. As opportunity offered, I collected and arranged proverbs that I found current among them; and in 1842 printed a collection of nearly nineteen hundred with an English translation.
The First Edition having become scarce, I was urged, by many whose judgment I felt bound to respect, to prepare matter for a second and enlarged edition. Various causes prevented me from immediately undertaking the work. For several years all my time was devoted to the revision of the Tamil Scriptures, in conjunction with Messrs. Rhenius, Knight, Spaulding, Hutchings, and others, and in passing the “Tentative Bible” through the Press. Subsequently a visit to England caused a further postponement of my plan, but, on my return to Madras in 1854, my attention was again directed to the subject of Tamil proverbs.
In the following year a Committee of gentlemen belonging to the Civil and Military Services of Government, Messrs. Stokes, Sim, Chamier, and Colonels Brown, Pears, and Bell resolved to start a Journal, for the purpose of diffusing, among the Tamil people, information social, political, and literary. The Committee invited my co-operation as Editor. This labor I at once accepted, the more readily because for several months I had been making arrangements to carry out the same idea, and had visited Calcutta to procure information on the subject, chiefly from Mr. Marshman. In October 1855 the first number of the new journal, the Dinavartamâni, was published. Soon after this I also undertook the editing of a Telugu journal of the same scope, and bearing the same name. The circulation of these papers throughout the Madras Presidency afforded me a good opportunity of inviting the subscribers to assist me in the collection of Tamil and Telugu proverbs. My request was met by contributions from all parts of the country. The former were added to a rapidly increasing collection, while a selection from the latter was published, from week to week, along with an English translation, in the Telugu Dinavartamâni. When the late Major Carr informed me that he was preparing a volume of Telugu proverbs for the Press, I made over to him my collection, a service he thus acknowledged in the Preface to his work—“The Translator has to thank the Rev. P. Percival, Professor of Vernacular Literature, Presidency College, for kindly placing at his disposal a MS. containing a large number of Telugu proverbs.”
In the year 1860 my collection of Tamil proverbs contained nearly five thousand examples translated into English and ready for the Press. At that time, however, I was so much engaged in preparing books and maps, in the Vernaculars, for the Director of Public Instruction, that I found it impossible to carry out my design of printing these proverbs, although I had announced it in the Dinavartamâni. Then followed an interval of ten years during which I was engaged in duties absorbing all my time and attention. I had the superintendence of the Public Instruction Press on my hands; and, aided by the Pundits of the Presidency College, and other competent native scholars, had the responsibility of editing, among the works that issued from the Press during this period, seven dictionaries, some of which have since been re-printed.
At the beginning of 1870, having been relieved from my heavy duties in connexion with the Presidency College and the University, I resolved to print the proverbs as they stood, and soon after this having met the Rev. G. Fryar of Manargudi, Tanjore District, I learnt that he had for eight or nine years been also engaged in collecting Tamil proverbs, and that his collection then amounted to five thousand examples, and that he proposed eventually to publish it on the basis of my First Edition. On hearing of my own plan, Mr. Fryar abandoned this purpose, and very generously placed his valuable MS. at my disposal, from which I obtained several hundred new proverbs.
Shortly after this, again, one of my compositors brought me an old-looking MS. containing over fifteen hundred examples. A voiume printed in 1861 at Vepery, and containing nearly four thousand examples, was also put into my hands. But these collections yielded very few proverbs not already contained in my own MS. A Pundit of the Government Normal School furnished me with about a hundred fresh examples, and a small MS. belonging to a Native Christian lady of Tanjore contained a few curious proverbs that I had not seen before. These related to Christian character, and evidently originated in anything but a benign feeling.
Altogether my collections in 1872 exceeded fifteen thousand, but they only yielded the number contained in this volume. That the outcome of so large a gathering should be comparatively small may easily be accounted for by the fact that the several collections, in very many instances, contained the same proverbs. It must be borne in mind that my own collection, which eventually absorbed the others, was made during a period extending over forty years, and that, through the medium of the Dinavartamâni, I had received contributions from all parts of the Madras Presidency, as well from North Ceylon. Hence it was but natural that I should anticipate collectors who come into the field later.
But for the omission of many of the admired Aphorisms of the ancient Tamil matron, Avveyar, this collection would have been somewhat larger, Though these Aphorisms are compositions of unequalled brevity and beauty, I have, for the most part, omitted them, because they are generally taught in schools, and indeed regarded as part of a school course. En passant I may mention that seven or eight years ago I printed and published them, in a separate form, with an analysis and translation in English, and that a Second Edition of this work is now in the Press. Bible proverbs, and those obviously Sanskrit, are also omitted, because this collection is designed to be Dravidian. Translations from Western proverbs I have for the same reason left out.
In this edition, as in the First, the proverbs are arranged in alphabetical order. This of course is the easiest method. Some years ago I thought of classifying the subjects somewhat after the plan of Amarakosha, a Sanskrit Dictionary, wherein objects are divided into separate classes, as Supernals, Infernals, Men, Animals, &c. A division of subjects on the principle of a commonplace book was also thought of, and a friend whose judgment I greatly respect, suggested an index, Although each of the methods referred to has much to recommend it, at length I gave them all up, and resolved to adopt the easiest—the alphabetical arrangement. Had I decided otherwise, the work must have been delayed; and as in my case “the day is far spent,” I might not have been able to accomplish my purpose.
On the analogy of the proverbial expressions current in all countries, many scraps of sentences, mere allusions, similitudes, and the like, are included in this collection, though not proverbs in the proper sense of the term. The objects of Nature, habits, and dispositions of animals, government, agriculture and commerce, domestic and religious usages supply a large number of proverbial expressions. The incidents of classical literature contribute many that prove highly acceptable to those who have any acquaintance with the sources of Hindu history. So largely do the stories of ancient writers contribute that the fact has originated a proverb universal among the people of Bengal.
What is there after Bhárata?
A glance at a few pages of this volume will suffice to show that the people among whom such proverbs are current cannot be ignorant of the laws of God.
Vox Populi, vox Dei,
may be applied to this aspect of many of the Dravidian proverbs:
"The people’s voice, the voice of God we call;
And what are Proverbs, but the people’s voice?
Coined first and common made, by common choice;
Then sure they must have weight, and truth withal."
I may be permitted to say a few words on the utility of a volume like that now offered to the public. A foreigner destined to spend the best part of his life among the Tamil people will find their proverbs of inestimable value. In these pithy and instructive sayings a vast fund of information will be found, not to be obtained from ordinary books, and not at all from books designed for Western minds;—practical maxims, resulting from the experience of many generations, maxims that will be sought in vain in books of modern origin.
The translation will, I hope, be generally approved. In some instances I have found it difficult to ascertain the meaning; and in many the application has equally puzzled both myself and others to whom I have applied for information. In some cases I may have been misled by those who might be more disposed to hazard a conjecture than to acknowledge ignorance. For the benefit of foreigners the occasional notes might have been advantageously increased in number, but usages differ so much that great caution is required in this matter. So varied is the operation of race, language, religion, and climate, upon the character and social usages of the Hindus who occupy the vast area of India that it is unsafe to assume generally that what is common in one Province is so in others.
In conclusion, any one interested in this work will oblige by sending me proverbs not found in the collection, or any suggestions for improving the next Edition. Though I may not hope to see another edition, my son-in-law, Mr. W. A. Symonds, who has long studied Tamil proverbs with great interest, will, should it be called for, undertake the editing.
| Little Bourne, Madras, |  |
P. PERCIVAL. |
| February 13, 1874. |  |