FOREWORD
Ceskoslovenska Akhademie Ved V Praze dne
Orientalni Ustav
Lazenska 4, Praha 1-Mala Strana
tel. 663-19, 663-96
Mr. N. Sanjeevi has a knack for choosing most interesting themes for his essays, written in the best of style, in alliterative, chaste prose of very high order. The present volume of his essays shows above all the surprising width of his interests—he is equally well versed in history, in literary criticism, and in philology. Take for instance his essay Tamil loan words in Malay; though I cannot agree with all of his identifications and though I think that he has slightly over estimated the Tamil influence on Malay; yet his is the first really thorough and detailed treatment of this highly important subject, a firm point of departure for all future research in this direction. On his essay on the art of essay-writing in Tamil; here, again, inspite of certain reservations I have towards his-for my taste-too high and too noble style, I think that it is easily the best which has ever been written on this subject in Tamil. It has given me a lot of pleasure to read his detailed and most devoted report on the life and work of Prof. R. P. Sethu Piifai whom I had the privilege to know personally. Equally important and path-breaking are the other two contributions to this volume.
I hope that in future Mr. N. Sanjeevi will bring out more of such outstanding works which combine critical approach, with ardent love for Tamil and with conscious effort after the best style possible.
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