Some Glimpses Of Tamilology- Speeches on Various Aspects of Tamil Studies

About the Author Dr. G. John Samuel, Founder Director of the Institute of Asian Studies, is a reputed scholar of Tamilology, and his contributions to Tamil Studies, Comparative Literature and other academic disciplines connected with Tamilology are indeed immense and laudable. Dr. T. Wignesan from France writes about Dr. G. John Samuel as follows: "Nothing can convey the extent of the vision of one man, the Founder-director of the Institute of Asian Studies, than the vast open spaces of the Chemmancherry campus the lasting foundations of a Tamil and Dravidian kingdom of learning are being laid, pebble by boulder, by the hour. One man's vision spans this domain; one man's indomitable will raised this solitary monument as a homage to the Tamils and Dravidians’ glorious ancient past And, today, after what seems like innumerable lavish and daring intellectual projects: conferences, seminars, publications and academic collaborations, no individual anywhere has come to represent the authentic Tamil Voice as this fearless Methodist. He's untiring, ubiquitous, enterprising, eclectic, and never rests on his laurels, a true miner d'hommes.

To get a more intimate feel of how the idea of the Institute was hatched and of the trials, hitches and glitches Dr.Samuel went through, one 'needs to peruse the five autobiographical volumes by him, titled: Me and Tamil (Tailem Nahum) To me, the "Institute", as the! AS has come to be known among the locals and the foreign "integrators’", is the lieu par excellence where the philosophy of co- operative effort spelt out by its founder-director is played out: not necessarily its many research programmers and the corresponding publications which have come to represent the sum total of its tangible achievements. I'm by no means trying to belittle these overt and evident fruits of years-long labors by self-sacrificing savants riveted to their tasks at the Institute's spare workshops. Yet, the good many research programmers and collective publications Instituted by the founders constitute an abundant academic production, in no way equaled by any other similar institution in the region. One thing, however, is certain: nowhere in the world mutatis mutandis has there been such an effort to investigate and bring to light such an amirtha curappi or cornucopia of Tamil and/or other Dravidian cultural heritages, that is, Southern Indian arts and archaeology, history and health sciences, literatures and languages, religions and records".

Preface T his small volume is the compilation of some of my brief and long speeches delivered in various conferences and seminars organized in England, South Korea, Mauritius and India at different intervals.

The first speech India and its Linguistic Pluralism: Contributions of Christian scholars to Dravidian Studies formed the presidential address of an International Seminar on the Contributions of Christianity to Dravidian languages and literatures organized by the Dravidian University, Kuppam.

The second speech Kanchipuram - the Home Town of Bodhidharma was the key-note address delivered at the Bodhidharma conference organized by the Institute of Seon, Dongguk University, South Korea.

The third speech Tirukkural the Universal Scripture was the special speech delivered at the Thirukkural Conference organized in Mauritius in the year 2016. This has become the manifesto of all the International Thirukkural Conferences organized by the Institute of Asian Studies jointly with various organizations all over the world.

Tirukkural beyond the frontiers of Tamil India was the topic chosen by me for the Second International Conference on Tirukkural organized jointly with the Liverpool Hope University, Liverpool, England in 2018. My speech on this topic explains the nature of the travel of Thirukkural, the universal ethical scripture the Tamils, from its place of birth to all over the world as well as its impact on various cultural and linguistic communities of Tirukkural for World Peace and Harmony was the main speech delivered by me at the Inaugural Session of the Third International Thirukkural Conference held at the UNESCO Auditorium, New Delhi in 2019 and this speech established with authentic data that the Tamil ethical corpus Thirukkural is a book for world Peace and Social Harmony.

The subsequent topic Tamil Studies with an Asian Perspective speaks about the academic achievements of Institute of Asian Studies in the. Tamil research undertaken at the international level for the past 38 years. This short speech was delivered at the 38th Anniversary celebration of the Institute of Asian Studies in February 2020.

Classical Tamil - A. Prologue was a lengthy Preface with historical perspective written by me for our publication Tamil as a Classical Language.

The very unfortunate demise of our revered Russian Scholar friend Prof. Alexander Dubiyanskiy came as a very big shocking news to Tamil academicians all over the globe. This speech is a fitting tribute to this great Tamil scholar and it was delivered in the condolence meeting for the demise of Prof. Dubiyanskiy organized by the Consul General of the Russian Federation in Chennai. It is indeed a matter of great joy and happiness for me to see all these stray speeches of mine in a single volume. I am thankful to my wife Mrs. Indra Samuel and my daughter Ms. Sheeba Samuel for having helped to present the speeches in the form of a very pleasant volume. The printer Mr. Singaravelu and our artist Mr. Jayabalan deserve my appreciation for the neat execution of the printing and for the pleasant cover design.

**Contents and Sample Pages**