As a writer, both in English and Tamil, Mr. Madhaviah needs no introduction. Readable versions of the great classics of Tamil Literature have long been a desideratum, and all efforts to remove the want are worthy of commendation. Among the great classics of Tamil Manimekalai deservedly occupies a high place, having had its praise sung by such a discerning critic of great judgment as Sivaprakasa Swamigal. Silappadhikaram and Manimekalai constitute a twin epic and ought to go together. The authors were friends, and the stories run one into the other. The princely author of the first belonged to the royal house of Vanji, the Chera capital on the West Coast. His friend, the author of the second, was a corn merchant of Madura, the critic par excellence of the “Third Sangam.” Though tradition does not in so many words declare that these works went before the Sangam and received its imprimatur, Tamil scholarship is unanimous in regarding these as “Sangam Works,” properly so called. Not-withstanding much irrelevant and inconclusive writing, the age of the “Third Sangam” is about the second century after Christ; no valid reason has so far been offered to the contrary.Manimekalai is a work of a dramatic-epic character, and has for its subject-matter the renunciation of the heroine. As it treats of this subject it has necessarily to find its setting in contemporary life and thought. While it may be readily taken as a picture of Tamil life in the age of Senguttuvan, its use for purposes of history requires not merely “the insight and imagination” that Lord Morley demands, but a fully developed historic sense which could separate, by sound criticism, the historical grain lying hidden in the chaff of legend and tradition. In qualified hands it provides considerable material for the history of the age, and a few data of an important character for Tamil literary history.It is to be hoped that the English version now placed before the public will lead to a wider study of the poem itself, and a better appreciation of its merits.