Dear Colleagues,

As I have committed myself to write notices of Tamil MSS from the Cambridge University Library, I found among them a Tamil version of the famous battle of Bobbili (in a paper manuscript donated by Percy Macqueen).

This Cambridge MS seems to contain an oral version committed to paper by Macqueen.

I am aware, thanks to S. Subrahmanyam, of the existence of a printed Tamil version of the narrative:

Periya poppili raaja_n katai. By Veeluur Ka_n_naiya Naayu.tu. Ce_n_nai Cuu.lai [i.e. Madras]: Veeluur Kuppucaami Mutaliyaar, 1907.

Unfortunately I have been unable to find a copy of that book on the web (DLI, Internet Archives) or in a library in Paris.

I would be very grateful if any of you having access to the Tamil printed version could compare the beginning and end of both versions, in order to confirm that we have here two different versions of the narrative. A digital copy of the first and last pages of the printed edition would be a great gift.

I attach a file with my tentative reading of the incipit and explicit of the Cambridge MS as well as pictures of its first and last folios.

With very best wishes.

Emmanuel Francis

Chargé de recherche CNRS, Centre d'étude de l'Inde et de l'Asie du Sud (UMR 8564, EHESS-CNRS, Paris)
http://ceias.ehess.fr/
http://ceias.ehess.fr/index.php?1725
http://rcsi.hypotheses.org/
Associate member, Centre for the Study of Manuscript Culture (SFB 950, Universität Hamburg)
http://www.manuscript-cultures.uni-hamburg.de/index_e.html