Acknowledgement: The thesis titled “MADURAI BARDIC TRADITION: AN UNIQUE CASE FOR ORAL TRADITION” is indebted to many without whose help the completion of this thesis would have been difficult. Few of them are specially remembered. Prof. T. Dharmaraj, the head of the department of folklore, Madurai Kamaraj University is one such person. I would like to underline my thanks to him especially for his guidance and thoughtful corrections. I am also especially indebted to my confreres in PILLAR, specially Fr. Immanuel and Fr. Jayapaul. Their support for any of my academic effort is encouraging and strengthening. I would like to underline my thanks to the department of folklore, Madurai Kamaraj University. The entire department along with the professor, the guest lecturer, the scholars and the students presents a wonderful atmosphere for any kind of academic discourse. The interactions with many of them largely helped in shaping this thesis. Other than the academic interaction provided by them some physical help was also rendered by them. Mr. Gobinath, the guest lecturer was helpful in finding the archival materials and also provided some wonderful guidance. Some accompanied me in the fieldwork. Special mention is to be made of Devendra Perumal (M.Phil scholar) who took me to Kurandi and Avaniyapuram. Then again a special mention is to be made of Rajendran (Ph.d Scholar) who introduced me to Balaji printers. My special thanks is due to all the informants. Special mention is to be made of Selvam and Dhiraviam, the sons of Chinnandi Servai. Selvam was very much happy to be supportive by providing necessary information on Chinnandi. He himself arranged a gathering in which many other informants were brought and that proved very useful. Avaniyapuram, the place of Selvam was a comfortable place to visit. Dhiraviam, the other son of Chinnandi had the invaluable collection of his father’s compositions and many of them were in Chinnandi’s own handwriting. He was generous enough to share some of the poems of his father. The handwritten copies of three of Chinnandi’s songs were given by him. One of it is given in the first appendix and the other two are in the archives of the department of folklore, Madurai Kamaraj University. It was a great act from Dhiraviam and I owe a big thanks to him. 1