பக்கம்:முல்லைப்பாட்டு ஆராய்ச்சியுரை.pdf/16

18 cent, and hence the date of its composition falls about the first century after Christian era. In commenting on this excellent poem I have followed the main lines of literary criticism incul- cated by the able and profound critic Professor William Minto; for his critical methods are authentic and help much towards a true and clear understand- ing of the work taken to be scrutinised. From this critical point of view, I have given a historical account of the age that gave birth to such a splendid poem as Mullaippattu and of the influence which that age had exerted on this poem. It must be re- membered that the true nature of a work of art cannot be comprehended unless the nature and conditions of the times in which it had sprung are distinctly under- stood. I have also availed myself of the grand views expressed on poetry by such great masters as Milton and Ruskin and have even translated freely into Tamil one or two passages from their writings. In my analysis of the poem I have adhered closely to the original idea conceived and expressed by the Poet, rather than follow the mangled and distorted meanings given by the old commentator Nachinarkkiniar. The old commentator, discarding the the simple and natural order and setting in which the subject-matter of the idyll is disposed, has torn the excellently woven fabric of the Poet to pieces and. glues them again together with his own vapid thought