Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction: Literature in History
- 2 Interrogating ‘Rediscovery’ and an Enquiry into the Transmission of Sangam Literature during the Pre-modern Period
- 3 Patrons and Networks of Patronage in the Publication of Tamil Classics
- 4 From Reproduction to Reception: The Writing of Literary Histories
- 5 Orientalism, Tamil Classics and the Organisational Politics
- 6 Conclusion
- Appendix I
- Appendix II
- Select Bibliography
- Index
4 - From Reproduction to Reception: The Writing of Literary Histories
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction: Literature in History
- 2 Interrogating ‘Rediscovery’ and an Enquiry into the Transmission of Sangam Literature during the Pre-modern Period
- 3 Patrons and Networks of Patronage in the Publication of Tamil Classics
- 4 From Reproduction to Reception: The Writing of Literary Histories
- 5 Orientalism, Tamil Classics and the Organisational Politics
- 6 Conclusion
- Appendix I
- Appendix II
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In an editorial preface to the revised third edition of Robert Caldwell's A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages published in 1913, Rev. J. L. Wyatt and T. Ramakrishna Pillai wrote:
We have decided to omit so much of Bishop Caldwell's Introduction as relates to the History of Dravidian Literature. In doing so we have been guided by two considerations. An account of Dravidian Literature is not strictly germane to the main purpose of the book, as Bishop Caldwell himself candidly admitted. In the second place, some of the author's conclusions as to the dates of the older books have been rendered obsolete by the researches of Indian scholars and the investigations of the Government Archaeological Departments.
(Italics mine).In a convocation address to the graduates of the Madras University in 1879, Caldwell himself was making an appeal to the educated ‘natives’ to venture into the study of their history, literature and archaeology. He observed:
The study of the history, ancient literature, and archaeology of the country will never reach anything like completeness of development or realize results of national importance, till it is systematically undertaken by the educated Natives. Learned Natives of Calcutta and Bombay, trained in European modes of thought, and vying with Europeans in zeal for historical accuracy, have already made a promising beginning in this department of research. I trust that the Native scholars of the South will resolve that they will not be left behind in the race.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Manuscripts, Memory and HistoryClassical Tamil Literature in Colonial India, pp. 150 - 202Publisher: Foundation BooksPrint publication year: 2014