PREFACE.
Next to the acquirement of a language and the excitement of a taste for its compositions, the wish must follow to peruse these in the perfect state in which they issued from the hands of the author; to admire the fertility of his genius as displayed in its original purity; and to ascertain the real beauty of his invention by a complete knowledge of the meaning conveyed in his writings. Such were the objects which led to the study of Greek and Latin prosody, and to these we are indebted for the works of Homer and Virgil in their present condition, originally corrected by this process, and handed down to us in this state by the art of printing.
The Telugu language is perhaps no less conspicuous among those spoken in India, for the extent, antiquity, and critical refinement of its literature, than were either of the languages of Greece or Rome. Every department of learning appears to have been cultivated in this tongue with zeal and success; it contains not only a long series of original compositions, but the Maha Bharata, the Bhagavata, and most of the principal Sanscrit poems have been translated by Telugu poets in remote times into their own language. To these also are added numerous versions of the lesser productions.
The grammar of the language has been cultivated with peculiar care; and extraordinary attention has been paid to prosody. The
