The First Edition having become scarce, I was urged, by many whose judgment I felt bound to respect, to prepare matter for a second and enlarged edition. Various causes prevented me from immediately undertaking the work. For several years all my time was devoted to the revision of the Tamil Scriptures, in conjunction with Messrs. Rhenius, Knight, Spaulding, Hutchings, and others, and in passing the “Tentative Bible” through the Press. Subsequently a visit to England caused a further postponement of my plan, but, on my return to Madras in 1854, my attention was again directed to the subject of Tamil proverbs.
In the following year a Committee of gentlemen belonging to the Civil and Military Services of Government, Messrs. Stokes, Sim, Chamier, and Colonels Brown, Pears, and Bell resolved to start a Journal, for the purpose of diffusing, among the Tamil people, information social, political, and literary. The Committee invited my co-operation as Editor. This labor I at once accepted, the more readily because for several months I had been making arrangements to carry out the same idea, and had visited Calcutta to procure information on the subject, chiefly from Mr. Marshman. In October 1855 the first number of the new journal, the Dinavartamâni, was published. Soon after this I also undertook the editing of a Telugu journal of the same scope, and bearing the same name. The circulation of these papers throughout the Madras Presidency afforded me a good opportunity of inviting the subscribers to assist me in the collection of Tamil and Telugu proverbs. My request was met by contributions from all parts of the country. The former were added to a rapidly increasing collection, while a selection from the latter was published, from week to week, along with an
