nam, and the versions of the Puranas were composed within the two or three last centuries. As these constitute the popular literature of all Malayalam readers, no Dravidian word found in them has been excluded. On the other hand there are many Malayalam compositions of later date, especially such as are current among the Vedantists, which evidently affect Tamil modes of expression. These have been excluded if not supported by other evidence.
3. To determine the amount of Sanscrit words to be received into a Malayalam Dictionary has been a task of even greater difficulty. As this Dictionary is not intended for the use of Sanscrit students, the rule followed in compiling it has been to include only those words and meanings that were found in bona fide Malayalam productions; to sift and reduce the enormous mass of mythological and botanical names and synonyms, many of which are confessedly very doubtful; to record merely the principal signification of words confined to poetical usage; and to devote particular attention only to those terms which are generally accepted as fairly domiciled in Malayalam and which have in the course of naturalization received various applications not to be met with in pure Sanscrit (e. g. (അന്യായം, അവസരം).
4. The idioms and significations peculiar to Southern Kerala or Travancore have been carefully collected both from the productions of the Cottayam press, and from the very valuable Dictionaries compiled by the Portuguese and Italian Missionaries of Virapoli; works which, although completed in 1746, rest upon materials accumulated in the 17th, perhaps even 16th century, and rank as the oldest monument extant of the study of Indian languages by Europeans. (They are marked in the Dictionary Vi. & V2). Still greater care has been bestowed upon the language of Northern Kerala or Malabar proper (with the Bekal Talook of Canara); and explanations of the historical names, castes and dynasties (comp. അകത്തൂടു, അടിയോടി, അമ്മാമൻ, അല്ലൂർ, അവരോധം, അസ്ഥിക്കുറെച്ചി) and of the institutions, usages and traditions, by which this province differs so singularly from the surrounding countries (see for instance, അങ്കം, അടിമ, അനുഭവം, അപരാധം) have been drawn from every trustworthy source. Amongst
