THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES 00 A CLASSIFIED COLLECTION OK TAMIL PROVERBS BY THK REV. HERMAN JBNSKN. Danish Mixxiomirii. Madrn*. "AN OUNCE OF MOTHER WIT is WORTH A PUUNO OF I.KAKNING." MADRAS : THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL PUBLISHING HOI SK. LONDON : TRUBNER AND CO. I8 97 . All lli'ilita B PRINTED AT THE M. E. PUBLISHING HOUSE, MOUNT ROAD, MADRAS. THE Luz, l$th April, 1897. 'ROM THE HON'BLE S. SUBRAMANIA AIYAR, B.L., C.I.E., Dewan Bahadur. DEAR SIR, I have no doubt that your forthcoming collection of Tamil proverbs will prove highly useful and interesting. The collection of sayings in the West by the side of these proverbs would enable many people to see how much similarity in ideas exists between the East and the West. As regards the translation into English the ideas under- lying those proverbs have been well brought out. I wish every success to your laudable undertaking. Yours sincerely, (Signed) S. SUBRAMANIEM. FROM C. W. TAMOTHARAM PILLAY, ESQ., B.A., B.L. The edition of proverbs brought out by the Rev. Mr. Jensen is decidedly an improvement upon its predecessors. Its classification under appropriate heads gives it a superior aspect, facilitating one to lay his hand on what he wants which he cannot do in a collection simply alphabetically arranged, the advantage of which is also combined in the edition by the index of the initial words. Notwithstanding that there are slight errors of gram- mar and spelling, which a European compiler cannot but fall into, the book, I believe, will be of great use to both the Tamilians and foreigners. (Signed) C. "W. TAMOTHARAM PILLAY. MADRAS, 23rd April, 1897. PREFACE, ABOUT twenty years ago, when I got Percival's collection of Tamil proverbs into my hands, I had only been a short time in India, and had as yet got no insight into Indian thought and liter- ature. I had read only a couple of small Tamil story books, but when reading these I had already perceived that the Indians could hardly tell a story without introducing some proverbs into it. My attention was thus at an early period of my life in India drawn to proverbs, and 1 began to study Percival's collection. I got, however, very little out of my study, as Percival had only given a translation of the Tamil proverbs, and had given no hints as to their meaning. So in those days I got no insight whatever into the real household proverbs, but had almost to rest satisfied with the many aphorisms, or what we in Tamil call (f^Qto/r^, of which we find large numbers in all our Tamil proverb collections. Yet, from what I had seen in the story books and in Percival's collec- tion I had got an interest in these terse, blunt and poetic sayings ; and year after year on getting deeper into the thought and life of India, and at the same time becoming acquainted with more and more of the proverbs, my interest in them steadily increased. And whenever I met with a new proverb either when talking with the people or reading Tamil books, I always looked for it in Perci- val's collection, and if he had not got it, I took a note of it ; and at times I tried to have some of them explained by the common people. While I was thus leisurely prosecuting the study of Tamil proverbs, the Rev. J. Lazarus, B.A., began to prepare a " Dictionary of Tamil Proverbs." I looked forward to the publication of this book with very great interest, but when it appeared, I was some- what disappointed with it, partly because Mr. Lazarus had not given a translation of the proverbs and partly because his expla- nation of the proverbs seemed to me, from the insight I had got into the proverbs through years of study, not always to be the right iv PREFACE. one. But the book roused my interest afresh, and I took a Tamil munshi for about three years to go through all the proverbs I had found in other collections, and those I now found in Mr. Lazarus's book, and also those I had collected myself. This study with my munshi together with the kind help I got from other Tamil people led me to a fuller understanding of Oriental proverbial literature, and after a couple of years investigation, I got the idea of pub- lishing a collection of these beautiful national sayings. But no sooner had I began to realize the idea, than I felt how much easier it was to get an idea than to carry it out. And hundreds of times, when going on with this work, have I felt the force of the Tamil proverb : " I stepped into the water without knowing its depth." When the idea of publishing a collection of Tamil proverbs occurred to me, I saw at once that I had great difficulties to face. I had the difficulty of two languages, both of which were foreign to me. I had the fear and still have it that it might be too much for a foreigner to venture on the publication of Tamil proverbs, as proverbs undoubtedly form the most difficult branch of a nation's literature to comprehend. Besides this, it was clear to me that if I were to publish Tamil proverbs, I could not adopt the usual alphabetical order, but would have to arrange them into groups. Another difficulty and without comparison the most important one was to get the proper meaning of the proverbs, not as some pandits may please to explain them, but as common men and women understand them, when they use them in their every day life. Another difficulty, again, was to have these thousands of proverbs before me sifted. What was to be taken, and what to be left out ? It always seemed to me that our collections of proverbs suffered from a great evil, viz., that they contained too many useless sayings, too many aphorisms and too many repetitions of the same proverbs. With these difficulties before me I started, hoping that the proverb would prove true : " Little strokes at last fell great oaks," or as we say in Tamil : " Stroke upon stroke will make oven a grindstone creep." When going into the study of Tamil proverbs one finds that little has been done in the way of making a scientific investigation of them. All proverbs, sayings and aphorisms we meet with in our PREFACE. V Tamil proverb collections we generally call Tamil proverbs, but these two terms Tamil and Proverb* raise two great questions : Are they all Tamil originally, and are they all proverbs ? When com- paring the Tamil proverbs with the Telugu ones, we find a good number almost word for word the same. And I remember when once walking with a friend in the streets of Poona, that he quoted two Marathi proverbs, both of which we have literally in Tamil. At Bombay I once happened to look into a Marathi proverb collection, and when I asked for a translation of the first proverb in the book I found it to be ours : " The dancing girl, who could not dance, said that the hall was not big enough." But which is which in our Tamil proverb collections. They are all called Tamil. Again, is it right to insert in our collections of proverbs hundreds and hundreds of aphorisms, classical sayings (i^Qwn^l) and common sayings, when these only communicate a truth in a general way, without making use of any sort of illustration ? It seems to me that we should not allow " the confusion of proverbs with mere precepts or maxims destitute of proverbial significance and character " to go on. Each in its proper place. I have not left them out altogether, but tried to insert only such as are common, and at the same time contain rare words or idiomatic phrases. To show what I mean by aphorisms and precepts, I shall quote a few here : s0sen-.i enpiftujuD &LO ffiLuerni Q^rrfii. *5-&g& sirift urreuu) Here are a few more of the same kind, but a little more clas- sical in their grammar : (gjeaanSeteonp eSpsng mj> QUC^SUITIT. &)6Vfr>Lc&)&)g! ) VI P K E F A C E. aSif (i/(j,D63r 67(^/5^? s^LLuuessfi QfdjeuiT&r . But where would be the end of it, if thpse were to be passed off as proverbs ? A fine collec- tion, quite a Mahabharata, might be made out of them. The literature of India abounds in them. From the Mahabharata, Hito- padesa, ^sfus^eaiunfr and other books, we could easily get a beautiful collection of aphorisms and sayings counted by thousands. Many of the proverbs met with in books have so often been handled by pandits, that we meet with the same proverb in a num- ber of forms. The same is the case with a number of proverbs, which, just because they are in common use all over the country, have become slightly altered when wandering about the country from place to place and from caste to caste. As they are in spite of slight changes the same proverb, they ought either to be put down together or references ought to be made from one to the other, as Captain Carr has tried to do in his collection of Telugu proverbs. If this is not done, they cannot but give the inex- perienced student of proverbs a great deal of trouble; and to me they have been a real worry, as I had to find them all out, in order that I might not in this collection repeat two proverbs that are the same. Here are a few examples of this kind : ^nii Qs 1 s@iTG8r = ausf&g)8> @ iLj uenstfl PBKFACI. Vll Jr Quasar f- LD&) un&) u.-r&J @i^.S '(yiLix . i@if&) The above are only a few examples of the many repetitions of the very same proverb. There is another way of changing a proverb, viz., by putting the second half of a proverb at the beginning, so that we get two proverbs out of one. As an instance : utli_ snsSQso ULJC, QSL'L. Qsij), changed into : QfQ#rr) gi&nnjgl, a collection of about 5,000 Tamil proverbs published in 1872, which is with reference to real household proverbs, far superior to Percival's. The book is out of print but can be seen in our public libraries. Then there is Percival's collection of about 6,000 proverbs with an English translation. A very useful little "Handbook of Tamil Proverbs and Phrases" was published in 1888 by Mr. P. Satya Nesan, B.A., containing 500 proverbs only, but with translation, application and many similar English proverbs. The last collection that appeared was Mr. Lazarus's " Dictionary of Tamil Proverbs." This book is now the largest collection we have, and so far it makes its prede- cessors superfluous. Mr. Lazarus has not translated the proverbs, but to every one he has given a hint as to its meaning. The other books from which I have chiefly drawn are the Tamil story books and Sastras. Of such I shall mention a few : Pandit S. M. Natesa Sastri's "Folklore in Southern India," which has a number of proverbs and Tamil stories to illustrate them. A magazine published some years ago called: "The Saguna Bodhini Series." A book called ^ffmciBirisua is, though written in poetry, full of proverbs. This is still more the case with "Vinoda Rasa- manjari" by A. Viraswami Chettiar, late Pandit in the Madras Presidency College. This book is simply interwoven with Tamil Proverbs. " Mathar Neethy " is another story book containing many fine proverbs ; and the same may be said of a book called : (SjSiLciufLDff&p&isfi. " The Viveka Chintamani," a monthly magazine, published by Mr. C. V. Swaminatha Iyer in Triplicane, has for the last year had a number of Tamil pi-overbs with Tamil explanation in every issue. The Sastras translated from Sanskrit into Tamil contain hardly any proverbs except the Mahabharata. This royal storehouse of something of everything that India has produced con- tains a good number of proverbs interspersed throughout the huge volume. So even with reference to provei-bs the Bengali proverb almost holds good : " What is there after the Mahabharata ? " PREFACE. IX Dear as these beautiful little proverbs are to Tamil people, I have for years wondered that so little has been done to make them known to Europeans, specially to European ladies, who have, or, at least, could have, so much influence with Indian women. Percival gave a translation to his collection and left it there. But a mere translation of a real proverb will not in most cases bring us into contact with its homely meaning. Take as an instance Percival's : ^etrajir&r ffieo tst&sTetfl , Qpppn&r siruu ^>ifS ewsir, translated : " the younger sister feeds on leaves, the elder is accustomed to fruit ; " in this case the translation is wrong, but even if it were translated properly, it would have no meaning to a Euro- pean. As Percival says, " In many instances the application has equally puzzled both myself and others to whom I have applied for information." To be sure, there's the rub in trying to explain proverbs. And consequently Percival left out the application, although he says that foreigners destined to spend the best part of their life among the Tamil people will find their proverbs of ines- timable value. But in many cases a Tamil proverb without its application is to a foreigner almost like an unbroken cocoanut to a dog, as the Tamil saying is. Mr. P. Satya Nesan in his collection began in the right way, but did not go far enough; Mr. J. Lazarus, on the other hand, had his thoughts chiefly directed on collecting all the Tamil proverbs into one book. Hence Tamil proverbs as such have hitherto been handed over to us like a chaos. My desire, as I have already indicated, has beenfirst to make the application of each proverb clear, and next to divide them into families. As far as I have succeeded in grasping the meaning, so far almost have I succeeded, I suppose, in getting them into their proper families. But it is hard to get such a register of sin, as prov- erbs almost are, into a systematic order. The phenomena of sin- ful life are so manifold, and the reflections on it so numerous that the difficulties sometimes seemed to me insurmountable. Be it remembered, that as long as I was working at the arranging of them I had not at hand the English index nor the two glossaries and the many references from one proverb to another, and from one family to another, that arc now before the reader. But in spite of all the difficulties and drawbacks, it seems to me that it is only when we h;ive arranged the proverbs in groups or families that we are able to see what the proverbs teach us. I do not look B X I' K K F A C E. upon the arrangement introduced by me as at all final. Far from it. What I have done I wish to be considered a beginning only, or a little attempt at cultivating the ground. Many of the prov- erbs are imperfectly explained, partly because their meaning luis not been fully grasped, and partly because many of them to be well understood ought to have a little story attached to them. They might be divided into more families, and all the minor familio might again be grouped into main families, as I have tried to do at the beginning of the book, and also at the end of it. As the result of bringing the proverbs into groups, though 1 have in many cases not achieved what I have aimed at, one can easily get an insight into the social, ethical or domestic thoughts contained in them. Take as an instance the family on fate and fortune. There may within this family be a few that would have fitted in better somewhere else, and in some other family may be a few that might have been inserted under fate and fortune ; but one can at once by the help of the arrangement of the book get an insight into what the Tamil proverbs teach on such a subject. I have also observed that the dividing of the proverbs into families is a great advantage in the study of the Tamil language itself. Though each proverb in a family may be said to harp on one and tlu> s;i un- string, the thought is expressed in a variety of terms, some of which are synonymous. Look for instance at the family on ostentation or itiuti one of the chief Indian sins, according to the proverbs at least in what a variety of language is vanity rebuked ! Another advantage of the family arrangement is that as a number of similar proverbs are brought together, they need less explanation ; for apart from a few that are misplaced, the heading of each chapter though in many cases it has been difficult to find an adequate! heading gives the key to the meaning of all that are included under it. It is a matter of consequence that though the proverbs in each family allude to the same thing, they are in most cases not synonymous. In the chapter on a mother, it is at once evident that most of the proverbs have little or nothing connecting them but this, that they refer to a mother. In the same chapter we get also a good insight into the way in which India regards a mother in all her capacities. In an hour's time one can by study- ing the chapter on a mother get some- real knowledge of her posi- tion in India, a knowledge which one could hardly get from any PREFACE. xi oilier sources. The references from one number to another all through the book are 'not to be taken as references to synonymous proverbs. This holds good in a few cases, but more often the references mean only that the reader would do well to compare the particular proverb with another, because they are closely related in thought or in language. As related individual proverbs are referred to each other, so are whole families referred to each other by the numbers given below the different chapters. In selecting English equivalents for the Tamil proverbs I have used the following books: W. Carew Hazlitt's "English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases." " A Handbook of Proverbs/' which is a republication of Ray's collection of English Proverbs. Captain Carr's "Telugu Proverbs " A collection of Marathi Prov- erbs. And "Eastern Proverbs and Emblems" by the Rev. J. Long. A few words on the characteristics of Indian proverbs com- pared with the English, as they have struck me while working on them, may not be out of place, though I have not made a study of this subject. "When going through an English collection of proverbs, one is struck by the number of proverbs referring to the weather and the seasons. India has very few proverbs of this kind. In India we have the South-West monsoon from May to October, and the North-East monsoon from November to April, and there is the end of it. The characteristic of the weather in England is change, while in India it is regularity. It would be thoroughly out of place in India to say : " A woman's mind and winter wind change oft." For the big chapter in this book on " Sorrow and lamenta- tion of women" I could hardly find any equivalent from the English. The English woman has been respected, while her Indian sister has met with very little respect, hence her lamenta- tion, and her revolting in bitter terms against her oppressors. Again, in India we have no girls or young ladies. We meet in India with female children and wives, as the Indian woman passes at once from being a child to being a wife. But in Europe young women have a fine time for their development, both physical and intellectual, before they get married. In this transition period, then, there is a rich sphere for English proverbs, but as there is no such period in India, there are no such Indian proverbs. Even a widow is not overlooked by the English proverbs, as she some- Xll PREFACE. times aspires, if possible, to many again, but the Indian widow has no such aspiration, for she is a mere widow, a Qf6Gars6)i#&, a contemptible thing ! Woman's dress plays a part in English proverbs, but it is jewelry which is here the all-important thing ; hence the tailor's shop plays the same part in Europe as the gold- smith's in India. In India a woman has had no trouble in dressing up in order to make an attractive appearance in Society, as her pai'ents arranged her marriage for her while she was still a child. Even if she is a monkey exceedingly ugly she will be married. The Tamil proverbs referring to vanity and ostentation out- number the English and are at the same time very pointed. There is almost no end to the Tamil proverbs on the wicked tendency in the human race to see their enemies destroyed. Though India is saturated with superstition, it seems to me, strange to say, that we meet with more English than Tamil proverbs on superstition. The Tamil proverbs almost altogether leave out criticism of super- stition, ceremonies, gods and temples, in short, all that refers to religious life. Even on caste there are comparatively few. Folly and laziness are regarded so differently by the Indians and the English that it is impossible to find English equivalents for the Tamil. The meaning of an English and a Tamil proverb may be the same, but the habits, customs and climate have formed them so differently. As an instance, we say in Tamil : " Ears (ornamented) with palmyra-leaves are better than ears with no ornaments ; " for this we might put the English : " Better a bare foot, than no foot at all ; " to go bare-footed in the Northern countries of Europe, especially in winter-time, would be very hard, but in India it is difficult to understand this English proverb, as all Indians still enjoy the great privilege of going bare-footed. One great peculiarity about the Tamil or Dravidian proverbs is that the animals we meet with are but dumb figures brought in merely for the purpose of illustration. In the Panchatandra, on the other hand, all animals are imbued with sense and characteris- tics : they think, talk, move and behave in every way like man. Nay, some animals in those ancient days seem even to have been reading the Vedas. The Aryans have given life to all their animals. The Dravidians, on the contrary, seem not to have seen much in animals ; in their proverbs, at least, they have not attributed anything like intellect to them, except perhaps a little PREFACE. Xlll to the cat. The shrewd and sensible elephant represents in Tamil proverbs outward greatness only. The gentle cow gives milk. The buffalo is for ploughing. Sheep are as stupid as their shep- herd. The dog's faithfulness is unknown. Dogs, pigs and crows are dirty and greedy animals. The ass is ever obstinate, but has willingly or unwillingly to submit to hard work and hard treatment ; its fate is a hard and pitiful one, indeed ; in the hands of the washerman it fares as badly as the monkey in the hands of the mendicant. The doctor and medicine for the poor ass is to go and roll itself in the dust of the street. AVhatever is done to an ass, it cannot become a horse ; in this sense the horse is used for something great and grand. But as the animals are brought in only in order to illustrate, and not for their own sake at all, they are of little interest in this connection. I have always been much struck with the complaining, the sighing, the groaning under the tyranny of men and of fate that underlies so many of the Indian proverbs. This is also the case with the Indian songs, hence also almost all tunes in India are full of melancholy. The triumphant tone does not pervade anything Indian. In all departments of Indian literature it is as if the goddess of the earth, Bhumidevi, stood personified, groaning under the burden heaped upon her. This feeling has found very strong expression in the Bhagavatgita : Aijuna, Slayer of Madhu ! Yet again, this Yog, This Peace, derived from equanimity, Made known by thee I see no fixity Therein, no rest, because the heart of men Is unfixed, Krishna ! rash, tumultuous, Wilful and strong. It were all one, I think, To hold the wayward wind, as tame man's heart. Krishna. Hero long armed ! beyond denial, hard Man's heart is to restrain and wavering ; Yet may it grow restrained by habit, Prince ! By want of self-command. This Yog, I say, Cometh not lightly to th* ungoverned : (who need it !) But he who will be master of himself Shall win it, if he stoutly strive thereto. The Song Celestial. E. ARNOLD. PREFACE. But why so much ado about nothing ? Why take so much trouble about these proverbs ? What is the good of it ? Who cares for these obsolete childish things ? Perhaps some old grandmother, when telling stories to women and children inside the houses who are half asleep on their mats, may make some use of them. But we men of the nineteenth century, what on earth have we to do with obsolete proverbial literature, some may ask. My answer is that it is well known that the more a nation develops the more its proverbs die out ; but though Europe has now for many hundreds ot years been developing, there are many proverbs still in circulation among the different nations of Europe, and some of these proverbs will not die out as long as there is a tongue on earth to speak them. Whether we look to the West or to the East we find that figurative speech always has great influence over the masses. I suppose this was the reason why Jesus, who " knew what was in man," "spake unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them." It is interesting to observe that the latest Tamil drama : " Lilavati-Sulochana" written by an educated man, P. Sambandam, B.A., contains about a score of Tamil proverbs. If proverbs are still largely in use by the masses, if they still form a part of their daily language, used in practical life for practical purposes, it is clearly our duty to know them, if we want to exert any influence on the people. When we read biographies of great men, we often see these great men attribute much of their greatness to their mother's influence on them in their early life. A mother, or a home, does lay the first foundation in every child's heart for its future, and in most cases the foundation laid by the mother or by the women of the home, has a most important effect on the moral life afterwards. In this case India is no exception to the rule. But from where does the Indian mother get thoughts by which to educate her children at home ? When a child is naughty, or when a daughter has quarrelled with her mother-in-law and comes home, does an Indian mother in such cases in order to rebuke or comfort quote from the Bhagavatgita, or from the Upanishads ? Does she from these books try to inculcate in the child's heart what the different indriyas mean *' that some of them are to be subdued, others again to be developed ? The Indian mother has her own practical way at home. I' K E i' A r E. XV Legends, stories aud proverbs are her storehouse ; from these she obtains material for rebuking, for sneering, for warning, for en- couraging, for comforting and for praising. The proverbs and maxims are India's practical ethics. The Indian proverbs are not antiquarian curiosities, but living and stern realities, and hence perhaps more celestial than the so-called "Celestial Songs" of the Bhagavatgita. By a good knowledge of Indian proverbs one is enabled, as it were, to feel the moral pulse of the Indian people, and a sound insight into the proverbial literature of India is like getting a microscope by which one can look deeply into the recesses of the native heart. Nothing else can throw so much light on the daily practice of the Indians as do the proverbs. And if one could publish the obscene ones also, which often contain most striking truths, we should see still deeper into the misery of the country. But the obscene ones with which I have met in our collections, and in intercourse with the people, I have left out. I have, how- ever, reason to believe that there are many obscene ones besides the few that I have seen and heard -, and that they are freely used by the great majority of the common people even in their children's presence. The children are often, I am told, made to laugh over them. Proverbs are merciless in their criticism of sinful life, aud they always aim at putting things right. As already said, the Indian mothers nurse their sons and daughters with them. By proverbs satire is pronounced over folly and over wickedness. By a proverb a crowd or a household is made to smile pleasantly, that otherwise might have got into a hot fight. In proverbs lies buried an endless store of criticism, encouragement, humour, sorrow and com- plaint, referring to all classes of mankind from the unborn child to the grey-haired veteran. And as the Hindu and we might for that matter say the whole world likes to hurt without hurting (&t-tTu>&) sffSSpgi), that he may not burn his own fingers, he has in the pro- verbial literature material by the help of which he can indirectly express his sorrow and joy, his approval or disapproval. By prov- erbs the shrewd and avaricious Brahmin is criticised ; the calcu- lating and careful Chetty is held up to ridicule or indirectly praised ; the shepherd's stupidity and the kuravan's rudeness is brought out; the ungrateful and (U'critful friend is mercilessly XVi PREFACE. rebuked; the life of immoral women is censured in strong terms; vanity is ridiculed ; the dulness and indifference of the Pariah is sarcastically blamed. No wonder that many of the proverbs are universal in their application, for human life is much the same all the world over. Anger, pride, arrogance, selfishness, avarice, passion, dissimulation, falsehood and many more sins that keep society at a low level, are all of them universal, and it is with such that the proverbs deal. The Rev. J. Long in his " Eastern Proverbs and Emblems" says with reference to the Chinese proverbs he has it from " Scarborough's Chinese Proverbs" : " Used as quotations, the value of proverbs in China is immense. So used in conversation, they add a piquancy and a flavour which greatly delight the Chinese and make mutual intercourse more easy and agreeable. But it is to the missionary that the value of an extensive acquaint- ance with Chinese proverbs is of the highest importance. Per- sonal experience, as well as the repeated testimony of others, make us bold to assert, that even a limited knowledge of Chinese proverbs is to him daily of inestimable value. A proverb will often serve to rouse the flagging attention of a congregation, or to arrest it at the commencement of a discourse. A proverb will often serve to produce a smile of good nature in an apparently ill-tempered audience and so to call forth a kindly feeling which did not seem before to exist. And very often a proverb aptly quoted will serve to convey a truth in the most terse and striking manner, so obviating the necessity for detached and lengthy argu- ments whilst they fix at a stroke the idea you are wishing to convey." The same author remarks : " Like the proverbs of Solomon (;ji?(oWt$), the Psalms, Bunyan's ' Pilgrim's Progress,' and the ' Arabian Nights,' they speak in a language ' under- standed of the people '." And from Archbishop Trench he quotes : " Anyone who by after-investigation has sought to discover how much our rustic hearers carry away, even from sermons to which they have atten- tively listened, will find that it is hardly ever the course or tenor of the argument, supposing the discourse to have contained such ; but if anything has been uttered as it used so often to be by the best Puritan preachers, tersely, pointedly, epigrammatically, this will have stayed by them, while all the rest has passed away. PREFACE. XV11 Great preachers to the people, such as have found their way to the universal heart of their fellows, have ever been great employers of proverbs." Pandits when inserting proverbs in the books they have made, or in books translated by them, have often tried to refine the langu- age in which they are expressed. They are always trying to employ big words and highflown terms, not knowing as yet that simplicity is the highest beauty. I think it is our duty, when we meet with pandit-refined proverbs to bring them back to their original form. I could give many examples of this kind, but I shall confine myself to one : u63r/z9CW ^essawQetsr or meOu) fgl&fresyii. The common form of this proverb is : usarB iSesr QunQii&esTgitxi L? jslsisTGgaui. L? is not an indecent word in a Hindu home as yet. Would that no worse words were used in Hindu houses ! Real life has dictated the proverbs, and as they are used in real life, so they should be quoted. Their meaning, their words and their grammar are alike practical and simple, why then dress them up in a pandit's dress ? When they die, let them die ; but as long as they are realities, and play an important part in the life of the nation, we should let them go in their natural simplicity, and honour them in their natural dress. The Two Tamil Indexes. I might perhaps be blamed for arranging the proverbs into families, because this arrangement makes it almost impossible for us to find any individual proverb, when we wish to see it. It is, how- ever, almost equally difficult to do this with the alphabetic arrange- ment, if one does not happen to remember the first word, which is often no easy thing, as it may be a most insignificant word, an {j)i5& or ^k^ or (9 or any other little word which has no relation to the meaning of the proverb. I have, however, furnished the book with an index, or alphabetical glossary, containing the first word of each proverb, so that if the first word is remembered it is easy to find any proverb. I have noticed by experience that there are words within the proverbs that by and by stick to the mind ; while we forget the tir>t word of a proverb, we remember words within it. I have therefore also provided this book with an index of words from within each proverb arranged alphabetically. C PREFACE. This latter glossary is given not only to help the reader to find the proverbs, but also in order to supply a vocabulary of the most important words found in them. The student who takes an interest in Tamil can easily, whenever he meets with a word in other books, or in conversation, and wishes to see how the word is used in proverbs, turn to the two indexes, find the word, and see the use of it and also its translation. As to translation, however, he may not always find direct help, as the translation of a proverb cannot but be somewhat free, if we are to get the meaning out of it by a translation. To those who might prefer the proverbs arranged according to the letter, and not according to the spirit, the two glossaries will be of great help, as they can at once find out for themselves where the words horse, elephant, monkey, snake, poison, medicine, doctor, Brahmin, Pariah, Chetty, rain, wind, sickle, thali, husband, wife, woman, destiny and such like words appear. I have in conclusion to express my thanks to all who have helped me in this work. My munshi, Mr. Vasudeva Pillai, has been my chief help in making the proverbs clear to me and in giving me their homely applications. He has also supplied me with a few hundreds of new proverbs, not found before in any collection I have come across. But after I had gone through the thousands of proverbs and phrases with my munshi, and as far as possible ascertained their meaning and their application, had selected those out of them that I wanted, had translated them into English, added their application, furnished some of them about 1,500 with corresponding English proverbs, brought them into families, and made a copy of it all, there was one thing still to be done, and that was to make a thorough revision of the English part of the book. For this last, but very important part of the undertaking the Rev. A. C. Clayton of the Wesleyan Mission came to my assistance, and for the generous help he has given me I shall ever feel most grateful. For about a year a,nd a half Mr. Clayton has almost daily worked at the revision of my English manuscripts, going over most of them twice at least. The proverbs being in a simple language, their translation ought also to be simple and plain. But it is very difficult to translate an Eastern proverb PREFACE. XIX into English so that its meaning may be clearly understood and it is still more difficult to do it so that the language of the translation may be in harmony with the original in directness and simplicity. So whatever the reader finds of idiomatic beauty in the English translation and application is almost all owing to the deep interest Mr. Clayton has taken in this work and the perseverance with which he has sought to improve it. To my great sorrow Mr. Clayton was transferred up-country at the beginning of this year. When he left there were still about 1,000 proverbs to be carried through the press, and up-country Mr. Clayton found it impossible to correct the proofs as quickly as I desired. Mr. A. Moffat, M.A., B.SC. of the Christian College has been kind enough to help me in correcting what was still left to be carried through the press. The Rev. N. Devasahayam, B.A., of the Leipzig Mission has also kindly gone over all the proof-sheets. HERMAN JENSEN. VEPERY, MADRAS. 24th April, 1897. INDEX TO THE ENGLISH HEADIXiiS, Pa-ie Pag* ABANDONMENT 249 Cleverness ... 198 Abundance 155 Coercion 210 Anger 215 Comfort 129 Anxiety 294 Comforting 378 Appearance 267 Companionship 257 Do. keeping it up ... 190 Do. influence of it 258 Arrogance 51 Do. association with Authority 147 the great 259 Do. tyranny 148 Compulsion 210 Do. having another person Conscience 300 in one's power 150 Consideration 145 Do. overbearing subordi- Contempt 176 nate ... 151 Content 130 Do. a master necessary Contrariety ... 314 everywhere 151 Courage 273 Do. miscellaneous 152 Cowardice 274 Do. like master, like servant 152 Craftiness 31 Do. many masters 153 Criticism 203 Avariciousness 196 Curing 27! Curses 165 33&QINNIK6 328 Belief 320 13ARKXKSS 270 Blessings 164 Death 324 Biagging 234 Do. one's death, another's Bravery 273 bread 324 Debt 117 OARELESSXESS 112 Do. miscellaneous 119 Caste 91 Deception 70 Do. abstinence from meat 92 Deceit 23 Cause 245 Delay 110 Certainty, quitting it for hope 319 Do. miscellaneous 141 Certainty 321 Desire, vain wishes 97 Charity (benevolence) 235 Do. disappointed desires 98 Children 365 Do. ungrateful greediness 99 Do. the capacities of a man . . . 366 Do. grasp all, lose all ... 100 Do. at home 3G6 Do. conflicting 101 Do. the conceit of young Do. counting the chickens, &c .. 103 people ... 368 Do. miscellaneous 104 Do. contrasted with age 308 Dexterity 198 Do. over indulgence of Dignity 173 children 369 Disagreement 313 INDEX. XXI Page Page Discontent 130 FALSEHOOD 346 Disgrace 41 Family life ... 349 Disguise 25 Fancies 296 Distress aos Fate 5 Disobedience 54 Fatness 106 Disunity 313 Faults 14 Do to others as you would be done to 289 Fear 274 Doctors 279 Flattery 168 Domestic life 349 Food 124 Do. distinction between X Forgiveness ... 318 near and distant Forbearance .. 95 relations 352 Fortune 8 Do. taking unfair advan- Do. unluckiness 9 tages of the ties of Do. luck 10 relationship 357 Do. the unlucky cause misfor- Dreams 2! )(5 tune 11 Friendship ... 347 EASE 129 Do. for gain 302 Eating 124 Do. at a distance ... 303 Do. hunger the best sauce 125 Do. familiarity breeds con- Do. good food ... 125 tempt 304 Do. miscellaneous 127 Do. close friendship 304 Effect 245 Do. danger of close friend- End justifies the means 88 ship 305 Enmity ... ... ... ... 314 Do. to agree like dogs and Envv 62 cats 306 Escape, no ... 107 Do. like and dislike 306 Do. narrow ... 108 Do. aversion 30C Do. the old fox is caught at Do. rejected friendship 307 last 108 Do. intrusion 308 Essential 281 Estimation, over 299 G-AIN, LOVE OF 114 Evident, self 269 Generosity, at other's expense 89 Evil and good 331 Do. cheap kind 89 Exaggeration 154 God 1 Excess and deficiency 154 Do. and man 2 Excuse 201 Good and evil 331 Exertion 215 Do. the good suffer and Do. much but little gain 217 the wicked prosper 330 Do. one has the toil, another Do. men ... 334 the profit 219 Do. enterprises that end Do. great exertion over trifles 221 unluckily ... :^7 Experience ... 157 Gratitude 241 Do. everj- man knows where Greatness, even the great err 336 his own shoe pinches. 158 Do. different signs of 336 Do. miscellaneous 158 Do. comparative 339 Expertness 160 Do. miscellaneous ... 339 xxn I N D K X . Growth Guardianship Page ... 288 Knowledge, man's knowledge litnit- 240 ed 101 Do. a learned fool ... ... 162 HABIT, NATURE CANNOT BE Do ' miscellaneous 162 CHANGED 90 Do. the power of 90 LAMENTATION 370 Do. what is done cannot be Laziness ... ... ... ... 121 undone ... ... 94 Leniency ... ... ... ... 95 Happiness 256 Lie 346 Harshness, over ... 214 Like seeks like 251 Haste ... 137 Likeness 316 Heart 297 Little things 222 Heaven 13 Do jj tt i e ev ii s destroy Hel P 235 much good ,.. 223 Hereditary characteristics and Do great things cannot natural instincts ... 229 be done by small Hindrance ... ... 206 meana 2 24 Hopes, deceived ... Do . little things will not Honour 173 become big things ... 225 Humilitv Do. he who can do great Husband and wife things, can easily Do. an ill match ... 397 do little things ... 225 Hypocrisy ... 25 Do . he who cannot accom- plish small deeds, IGNORANCE 132 cannot do great Imitation 167 things 12G Impartiality ... ... ... 64 Do. penny wise and pound Important, all 281 foolish 227 Importunity ... ... ... 185 Do. something is better Impossible 284 than nothing Improbable 284 Do. he who cannot bear a Indulgence of children 369 little suffering, can- Do. over 214 not bear grout dis- Ingratitude 241 asters ... 228 Inheritance 316 Loss ... 84 Inquisitiveness 203 Do. miscellaneous 85 Injustice 64 Love .. 348 Interference with quiet people .. 342 Luxury Investigation ... ... ... 203 MARRIAGE 388 Medicine ... ... 279 JEALOUSY 52 Meddlesomeness ... ... ... 340 " 2 Mind 297 Justice 64 Do. misfortunes never come single ... ... ... 32 KINGS 1-16 Mother 361 Knowledge 161 Mother-in-law 402 INDEX. xxni New brooms sweep clean ... Page 230 277 OBKIHKNI K 54 Obstacles ... .. ... ... 206 Omens ... ... ... ... 247 Opposition ... ... ... ... 314 Ostentation ... .. ... . 178 Ownership ... ... ... ... 358 PARTIALITY Patience Permanence of evil ... Perseverance 64 318 56 207 Persistence ... ... ... ... 208 Perplexity .. ... ... ... 295 Politeness 264 Do. to oneself 266 Do. miscellaneous ... ... 266 Poor 184 Poor and rich ... ... ... 187 Do. miscellaneous ... 191 Possession ... .. ... ... 358 Do. Do. what one has not labour- ed for is little valued... exaggerating the value of one's own posses- sion ... Practice Pretexts Pride Priest Procrastination Progress ... ... ... ... 288 Protection 231 Prudence ... ... ... ... 145 Punishment 211 359 360 160 201 51 12 140 R.UX Rarity Rashness Realities Reduced in circumstances... Renown Restlessness ... Riches Rich and poor Roguery 280 156 137 296 58 173 25 116 187 31 Page Roguery, from bad to worse ; mis- fortunes never come single ... ... ... 32 Ruin ... 76 Do. to ruin the ruined ... ... 79 Do. miscellaneous 80 Siiturn Scarcity Searching Do. Do. in a wrong place something that comes by itself miscellaneous will come out at last Do. Secrets Do. Seeking Selfishness ... Self-praise ... Servants demand servants... Shame (disgrace) ... Shame Signs Similarity Sin Do. every man has his faults Do. no one sees his own fault ... Do. to condemn others ... Do. the fault in one person, the blame on another ... Do. misconstruction Do. wilful sin Do. fault-finding Do. as you make your bed, so you must He on it Slander Sorrow Do. miscellaneous Spending Steadfastness Stinginess ... Stoutness Strife Stupidity Suffering, beneficial to man Superabundance Support 248 248 156 270 271 271 272 285 287 270 37 171 292 41 176 247 316 14 14 15 16 17 18 19 19 20 66 370 375 257 321 196 106 66 132 329 156 231 XXIV INDEX. '.THANKFULNESS Theft Thieves Do. accomplices' Time 246 Tit for tat 251 Transmigration ... ... ... 7 Troubles 294 Trust ... 320 Do. the untrustworthy ... ... 320 Truth 343 Do. frankness; confession ... 343 Do. miscellaneous 344 TJNCKRTAINTY Union... "VAIN EXERTION Veda .. "WATCHFULNESS ... Wealth Wickedness ... Do. the doer of great evils will not fear to commit smaller ones. Do. he who commits small evils, will soon com- mit great ones Do. kill evil in its very birth 321 312 290 13 144 116 46 46 47 47 Pane Wickedness, miscellaneous ... 48 Will, where there is a will, there is a way ... ... ... 299 Do. miscellaneous ... ... 300 Wife and husband 391 Witness 300 Women 378 Do. obedience and modesty ... 370 Do. jewelry, dress and beauty. 380 Do. man's compassion for women ... ... ... 382 Do. untrustworthiness ... 383 Do. importance in the family... 384 Do. cleverness and dexterity... 385 Do. unmarried and widows ... 386 Do. her failings 398 Words without deeds ... ... 260 Do. power of kind and harsh... 309 Do. to speak decisively and clearly 309 Do. nonsense and empty babble 31O Work and workers ... ... 292 Worthless, the 68 Do. apparently ... ... 70 Do. cannot attain to what is noble ... ... 71 Do. cannot improve ... 72 Do. are contemptible ... 73 Do. not to be honoured ... 74 Do. raised above their sta- tion .. 75 CLASSIFIED COLLECTION OF TAMIL PROVERBS GOD. These Sentences about God are not Proverbs, but Aphorisms. God (is our) help, or The Lord is our help. This little sentence is put above the Title of almost every Hindu book.