TAMIL
Encyclopaedia in Tamil
ASHOKAMITRAN
BRITANNICA THAGAVAL KALANJIYAM — A Tamil edition of Britannica Concise Encyclopaedia (Three volumes with a separate subject index): Encyclopaedia Britannica (India) Pvt. Ltd., and Vasan Publications Pvt. Ltd., 757, Anna Salai, Chennai-600006.
Rs. 4000 for the set.
FOR OVER two centuries, the role played by Encyclopaedia Britannica in nourishing human knowledge with authentic and exhaustive information cannot be overemphasised. It still happens to be the most referred source for precise and de
pendable information about diverse aspects of the world and mankind. Now a concise form of the publication in Tamil is made available through the efforts of two of India’s leading publishing houses.
Choosing and listing nearly 30,000 entries for these volumes must have been a difficult task because of the dissimilarities in the alphabetical order in these two languages. The entries are generally of equal length though there are a few which go up to 1000 words. A good number of the entries are translations from the English but there are quite a few created specially for this edition in the Tamil context. Any encyclopaedia or reference book is generally a challenge to a reader’s visual endurance but the types chosen in this instance are reader friendly. There are about 2000 photographs and numerous drawings and tables. Most entries are updated though one or two tables stay a little behind, the table of Nobel Prize winners, for example.
The editors have thoughtfully included the names of listed entries in English also. A mere transliteration in Tamil of foreign names and concepts could have been quite misleading and confusing. An encyclopaedia is never final and it is an enterprise needing constant revision, updating and additions.
Since the source book is in another language, it is of utmost importance that there is clarity in the target language. And, of course, there can be no compromise in the accuracy of information provided. The index is in English, which is a great help. So it becomes all the more necessary to spell the names of personalities in the manner they spelt them. This is a stupendous effort and must be hailed as a landmark publication.
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