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In this volume, A. K. Ramanujan translates old Tamil poems selected from anthologies compiled around two millennia ago.These poems are ‘classical' –early ancient; they are also ‘classics'–works that have stood the test of time, the founding works of a whole tradition. Early classical Tamil literature (c.100 BC—AD 250) consists of eight anthologies (Ettuttokai), the ten long poems (Pattuppattu), and a grammar called the Tolkappiyan or the ‘old composition'. With the marriage of traditional form and the language of modern usage, the greatness of classical Tamil literature becomes evident to readers: the poems speak to one another, with lyricism and drama. The poems are followed by an Afterword: an essay on the Tamil world picture and its relation to Tamil poetry and poetics. The transliteration of Tamil words follows the Tamil lexicon. This edition contains a new preface by Molly Daniels-Ramanujan.