The rich antiquity of the Tamil language, literature and culture is universally acclaimed. As a language Tamil is used predominantly by the Dravidian people but it is enthusiastically studied as part of academic courses both in Indian universities and global universities. In 2004, the government of India recognized Tamil as a classical language. Tamil is the state language of Tamil Nadu, it is also an official language in Sri Lanka and Singapore. In fact, Tamil language, literature and culture have travelled to all parts of the world via the increasing numbers of the Tamil diaspora that negotiates the cultural values of their location of origin and the world. Therefore the endeavour of the Dept. of Tamil Studies become more pertinent not because it can promote multilingualism in India but can also bring together the Indian diaspora who otherwise seem to be islands in a stream, confined to their singular regional cultures.

It gives me great pleasure in registering my appreciation of the excellent academic initiatives of the Dept. of Tamil Studies, Calcutta University. Since 1992, the Dept. of Tamil Studies has published six very useful and scholarly volumes dealing with Tamil as a language teaching programme. These are Tamil- Script and Sound (1992), A Pedagogical Dictionary of (written) Tamil verbs (1995), Tamil- self-taught (1998), A workbook for Tamil self-taught (2000), A Multilingual Reader for spoken Tamil (2000). A Handbook of Spoken Tamil-Bengali Reader (2008).

The current volume Tri-lingual Dictionary (Tamil-English- Bengali) (for learners) is truly path-breaking as it is the first such volume that provides many useful lexical data to beginners and advanced learners as well, far ahead of the scope and span of the dictionaries that are now available.

The Dept. of Tamil Studies has remained admirably productive since its inception and has foregrounded the excellence of the Tamil language, recognized as a prestigious classical language of India. The need to preserve, promote and publicite the ethnic languages of the world has been widely felt in the Depts of ethnic languages and literature and therefore I strongly feel that the initiative of the Dept. of Tamil studies is a step in the right direction.

The Department of Tamil studies now enjoys the pleasure of bringing out its latest production Tri-Lingual Dictionary (Tamil- English-Bengali) (for learners'), the first of its kind. From the very inception the Department has regularly been publishing dictionary, language teaching books and books on comparative studies. Some of the important publications of the Department have been mentioned by Prof. Bhanumathi in her introductory note. She has also mentioned in details the methodology of the entries made in this dictionary. For the benefit of the learners the dictionary is enriched with the universal, as well as connotative, figurative and idiomatic expressions of each entry I hope dictionary will be of immense help to the non-Tamil students learning Tamil.

The Department will not be able to bring this dictionary into light without the financial assistance extended by this University. In this opportunity I, on behalf of the Department, express gratitude to the Vice-chancellor, Pro-Vice-chancellor (Academic), Pro-Vice-chancellor (Business Affairs and Finance) and the Registrar, University of Calcutta, for their kind encouragement, guidance and co-operation.

Departmental Teachers' heartfelt thanks to Dr. Sanjukta Dasgupta, Dean of Arts Faculty and Professor, Department of English, University of Calcutta, for writing a foreword to this dictionary despite her very tight schedule. Our special thanks to Mr. S. Krishnamoorthy for editing the Dictionary and to Mr. Bilash Hazra of Modern Printers for the neat and impressive printing of the Dictionary. Prof. P. Bhanumathi, teacher of our Department also deserves thanks for her valued Introduction We also extend our thanks to all of them whose inspiration and encouragement enthused us to undertake the preparation of this Dictionary.

**Contents and Sample Pages**