As far as was possible, this Indian English gloss has been given as it stands in the 15 volumes prepared by V.M.S. Subramanya Ayyar for the French Institute Library
However, at places, it has been found useful
to indicate:
1. the places where VMS's tamil text differs
from PIFI 68.1 and PIFI 68.2, to which we shall
conveniently refer as the PIFI text,
2. the places where we organize differently VMS's text.
The goal was to have an Indian English gloss which could read almost as a translation.
Regarding the places where VMS's tamil text differs from the PIFI text, they have been indicated by capital roman letters between square brackets, sometimes accompanied by numerals, like for instance [[B]], [[A2]], [[A1]].
In order to reconstruct the PIFI text from the given text, one has to reorder the letters (and the numerals): in the above mentionned text, the logical order is [[A1]], [[A2]] & [[B]].
This means that what is given for patikam 2:59 in the order:
_arunōyē. [[B]]
_aṭaiyā, [[A2]]
_alaṅkal cūṭṭa vallārkku [[A1]]
stood in the PIFI text as:
_alaṅkal cūṭṭa vallārkku [[A1]]
_aṭaiyā, [[A2]]
_arunōyē. [[B]]
The use of numerals inside [[A1]] and [[A2]] indicates that
VMS has given them as one unit, after reordering them,
because we see in fact in his printed text:
_arunōyē. the disease ....
_aṭaiyā, _alaṅkal cūṭṭa vallārkku will not reach those ...
whereas the PIFI text is:
_alaṅkal cūṭṭa vallārkku _aṭaiyā, _arunōyē.
The segments of text which stand between [*
and *] are not to be seen in VMS's tamil text
although they can be found inside the PIFI text.
For instance, verse 5 of patikam 2:59 contains in the PIFI:
tuyar pōmē.
whereas VMS gives it as:
tuyar pōm.
which we note as:
tuyar pōm [*ē*].
The segments of text which stand between (* and *) have been added by VMS. See for instance patikam 5:40, verse 2: maruntu (* uṇṭu *) vāṉavar _uyya
In the cases where we had to differ from VMS's text order, the same principles were adhered to, but these tags use lower case letters (eventually accompanied by numerals) and stand between the { and } symbols. See for instance the use of {[b2]}, {[a]} and {[b1]} inside verse 1 of already mentionned patikam 2:59. One can obtain VMS's text by reordering these tags and the associated segents of text.
When we noticed a variant reading inside VMS's text,
as compared with the PIFI text, it was put
between two tags: {V-} and {-V}. For instance, VMS's text
for the same patikam starts with the segment:
_ūr _ār _uvaric caṅkam vaṅkam koṇṭu
whereas the PIFI text is:
_ūr _ār _uvaric caṅkam vaṅkam koṭuvantu.
For that reason, the text is here given as:
_ūr _ār _uvaric caṅkam vaṅkam {V-}koṇṭu{-V}