Tirukkuṛaḷ

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Tirukkural
திருக்குறள்

A typical published original Tamil version of the book

Author Valluvar

Original title Muppāl

Working title Kural

Country India

Language Old Tamil

Series Patiṉeṇkīḻkaṇakku

Subject Secular ethics

Genre Poetry

Publication date 1812 (first known printed edition)

Published in English 1840

Topics in Sangam literature

Sangam literature

Akattiyam Tholkāppiyam

Eighteen Greater Texts

Eight Anthologies

Aiṅkurunūṟu Akanāṉūṟu
 Puṟanāṉūṟu Kalittokai

Kuṟuntokai Natṟiṇai

Paripāṭal Patiṟṟuppattu

Ten Idylls

Tirumurukāṟṟuppaṭai Kuṟiñcippāṭṭu

Malaipaṭukaṭām Maturaikkāñci

Mullaippāṭṭu Neṭunalvāṭai

Paṭṭiṉappālai Perumpāṇāṟṟuppaṭai

Poruṇarāṟṟuppaṭai Ciṟupāṇāṟṟuppaṭai

Eighteen Lesser Texts

Nālaṭiyār Nāṉmaṇikkaṭikai

Iṉṉā Nāṟpatu Iṉiyavai Nāṟpatu

Kār Nāṟpatu Kaḷavaḻi Nāṟpatu

Aintiṇai Aimpatu Tiṉaimoḻi Aimpatu

Tiṉaimalai Nūṟṟu
Aintinai Eḻupatu
Aimpatu

Tirukkuṛaḷ Tirikaṭukam

Ācārakkōvai Paḻamoḻi Nāṉūṟu

Ciṟupañcamūlam Mutumoḻikkānci

Elāti Kainnilai

Related topics

Sangam Sangam landscape

Tamil history from Ancient Tamil

Sangam literature music

edit

Tamil Wikisource has

original text related to this
article:
 Tirukkural

The Tirukkural (Tamil: திருக்குறள் , literally Sacred Verses), or shortly the Kural, is a
classic Tamil text consisting of 1,330 couplets or Kurals, dealing with the everyday virtues of an
individual.[1][2] It is one of the two oldest works now extant in Tamil Literature in their entirety, the other
being the Tolkappiyam.[3] Considered one of the greatest works ever written on ethics and morality,
chiefly secular ethics, it is known for its universality and non-denominational nature.[4] It was authored
by Valluvar, also known in full as Thiruvalluvar. The text has been dated variously from 300 BCE to 5th
century CE. The traditional accounts describe it as the last work of the third Sangam, but linguistic analysis
suggests a later date of 450 to 500 CE.[5]
Traditionally praised as "the Universal Veda" and "the Universal Code of Conduct,"[6][7] the Kural
emphasizes on the vital principles of non-violence, moral vegetarianism or veganism,[a]human brotherhood,
absence of desires, path of righteousness and truth, and so forth, besides covering a wide range of subjects
such as moral codes of rulers, friendship, agriculture, knowledge and wisdom, sobriety, love, and domestic
life.[4] The work is commonly quoted in vegetarian conferences, both in India and abroad.[8] Considered as
chef d'oeuvre of both Indian and world literature,[9] the Kural is one of the most important works in
the Tamil language and is often called "the masterpiece of Tamil Literature."[3] This is reflected in some of
the other names by which the text is given by, such as the Work of Three Books, Modern Veda, Divine
Work, Faultless Word, and Tamil Veda.[6][10]
The Kural has influenced several scholars across the ethical, social, political, economical, religious,
philosophical, and spiritual spheres.[11][12] Authors influenced by the Kural include Ilango
Adigal, Kambar, Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Schweitzer, Constantius Joseph Beschi, Karl
Graul, George Uglow Pope, Alexander Piatigorsky, and Yu Hsi, many of whom have translated the work
into their languages. Translated into at least 40 languages as of 2014, the Kural is one of the most widely
translated works in the world.[13] Because the life, culture and ethics of the Tamils are considered to be
solely defined in terms of the values set by the Kural, the government and the people of Tamil Nadu alike
uphold the text with utmost reverence.[14]Along with the Gita, the Kural is a prime candidate nominated to
be the national book of India, for which a declaration was passed at the Tamil Nadu Assembly in 2006.[15]

Contents

 1Etymology
 2Organization of the work
 3Date
 4Author
 5Structural plan of the work
 6Substance of the work
 7Comparison with other ancient literature
o 7.1Similarities with ancient Indian literature
o 7.2Similarities with Confucian thoughts
 8Publication of the work
 9Commentaries and translations
o 9.1Commentaries
o 9.2Translations
o 9.3Translational difficulties
 10Memorials
 11Reception
 12In popular culture
 13Legacy
 14See also
 15Notes
  16Citations
 17References
o 17.1Primary sources (Tamil)
o 17.2Secondary sources
 17.2.1Books
 17.2.2Journals and Magazines
 17.2.3Newspapers
 17.2.4Online
 18Further reading
 19External links

Etymology[edit]
Main article: Glossary of names for the Tirukkural
The term Tirukkural is a compound word made of two individual terms, tiru and kural. Tiru is an honorific
Tamil term that corresponds to the universally Indian, Sanskrit term sri meaning "holy, sacred, excellent,
honorable, and beautiful."[16] The term tiru has as many as 19 different meanings.[17] Kural means
something that is "short, concise, and abridged."[16] Etymologically, kural is the shortened form of kural
paattu, which is derived from kuruvenpaattu, one of the two Tamil poetic forms explained
by Tolkappiyam, the other one being neduvenpaattu.[18] According to Winslow, kural is used as a literary
term to indicate "a metrical line of 2 feet, or a distich or couplet of short lines, the first of 4 and the second
of 3 feet." Thus, Tirukkural literally comes to mean "sacred couplets."[16]
The Kural is unique among ancient works that it did not have a name nor did it have any mention of the
author's name in it at the time of its release at the ruler's court at the city of Madurai, the seat of the Third
Tamil Sangam.[19] The author used the title Muppāl, meaning "three divisions," to present it to the
King,[20] since the work was written about the first three of the four ancient Indian aims in life, known
as purushaarthas, viz., virtue, wealth and love,[16][21] with the fourth aim, namely, salvation (moksha),
implicitly said in the last five chapters of Book I.[22] Remaining nameless for several years after its writing,
the work came to be referred to by various names in the centuries that followed. Nine traditional names
had already been in use to refer to the book during the time of writing of the Tiruvalluva Maalai, a eulogy
written on the Kural by various poets between the 1st and 11th centuries CE.[7] Nevertheless, the
title Muppāl remained the work's primary name until the 13th century CE.[23] It is estimated that the Kural
has historically been known by as many as 44 names given at various periods over the millennia, making it
one of the numerously titled works.[24]

Organization of the work[edit]

The Kural is structured into 133 chapters, each containing 10 couplets (or kurals), for a total of 1,330
couplets.[25][b] The 133 chapters are grouped into three parts, or "books":[25][26]

 Book I – Aṟattuppāl (அறத்துப்பால் ): Book of Virtue (Dharma),

dealing with virtues independent of the surroundings (Chapters 1-38)
 Book II – Poruṭpāl (பபாருட்பால் ): Book of Polity (Artha), dealing
with virtues with respect to the surroundings (Chapters 39-108)
 Book III – Kāmattuppāl (காமத்துப் பால் ): Book of Love (Kama),
dealing with virtues involved in conjugal human love (Chapters 109-
133)
Each kural or couplet contains exactly seven words, known as cirs, with four cirs on the first line and three
on the second, following the kural metre. A cir is a single or a combination of more than one Tamil word.
For example, the term Thirukkural is a cir formed by combining the two words thiru and kuṛaḷ. The book
on Aṟam (virtue) contains 380 verses, that of Poruḷ (wealth) has 700 and that of Inbam or kāmam (love)
has 250.[25]
Aṟam refers to ethical values for the holistic pursuit of life, porul refers to wealth obtained in ethical
manner guided by aṟam, and inbam or kāmam refers to pleasure and fulfilment of one's desires, also in
an aṟam-driven manner. Although porul and inbam are desirable pursuits in human life, they both need to
be regulated by aṟam. One must remain unattached to wealth and possessions, which can either be
transcended or sought with detachment and awareness. Similarly, pleasure needs to be fulfilled consciously
and without harming anyone. It is said that there exists an inherent tension between porul and inbam. Thus,
wealth and pleasure must be pursued with an "action with renunciation," which is nothing but an aṟam-
driven action that is craving-free, in order to resolve this tension.[27]
The overall organisation of the Kural text is based on seven ideals prescribed for a commoner besides
observations of love.[28] This includes 40 couplets on God, rain, ascetics, and virtue; 200 on domestic
virtue; 140 on higher yet most fundamental virtue based on grace, benevolence and compassion; 250 on
royalty; 100 on ministers of state; 220 on essential requirements of administration; 130 on morality, both
positive and negative; and 250 on human love and passion.[4][28]
show
Outline of the Kural

Date[edit]
Main article: Dating the Tirukkural
The Kural has been dated variously from 300 BCE to 5th century CE. According to traditional accounts, it
was the last work of the third Sangam, and was subjected to a divine test (which it passed). The scholars
who believe this tradition, such as Somasundara Bharathiar and M Rajamanickam, date the text to as early
as 300 BCE. Historian K. K. Pillay assigned it to the early 1st century CE.[5]
Linguist Kamil Zvelebil is certain that Tirukkuṛaḷ does not belong to the Sangam period, and dates it to
somewhere between 450 and 500 CE.[5] His estimate is based on the language of the text, its allusions to
the earlier works, and its borrowing from some Sanskrit treatises.[29] Zvelebil notes that the text features
several grammatical innovations, that are absent in the older Sangam literature. The text also features a
higher number of Sanskrit loan words compared to these older texts.[30] According to Zvelebil, besides
being part of the ancient Tamil literary tradition, the author was also a part of the "one great Indian ethical,
didactic tradition," as a few of his verses seem to be translations of the verses in Sanskrit texts such
as Mānavadharmaśāstra and Kautilya's Arthaśāstra.[31]
S. Vaiyapuri Pillai assigned the work to c. 650 CE, believing that it borrowed from some Sanskrit works of
6th century CE.[5] Zvelebil disagrees with this assessment, pointing out that some of the words that Pillai
believed to be Sanskrit loan words have now been proved to be of Dravidian origin by Thomas
Burrow and Murray Barnson Emeneau.[31]
In the face of incessant debate on the precise date, taking the latest of the estimated dates, the Tamil Nadu
government officially declared 31 BCE as the year of Valluvar, as suggested by Maraimalai Adigal, on 18
January 1935, adding Valluvar Year to the calendar.[32][c]

Author[edit]
Main article: Thiruvalluvar
"The book without a name by an author without a name."
—Monsieur Ariel, 1848[19]

Very little is known about Valluvar, the author of the Kural. In his work The Smile of
Murugan, Czech Scholar Kamil Zvelebil cites a tradition suggesting he was an outcaste by birth, the issue
of a union between a Brahmin man and a Pariah woman. Some think that he was a weaver by caste.[14] He
is believed to have been born in the temple town of Mylapore, a locality within the present-day Chennai,
and is said to be a simple weaver by profession who wrote the kurals with divine inspiration. He was
married to Vasuki. The first instance of the author's name mentioned as "Valluvar" is found to be several
centuries later in a song of praise called the Tiruvalluva Maalai.[33] Just as the book remained unnamed at
the time of its presentation at the court of the ruler, the author too did not name himself in the writing of
the book. Over the centuries that followed, people started calling the work "Tirukkural" and its author as
"Thiruvalluvar". Monsieur Ariel, who translated the Kural text into French, thus praised it as "the book
without a name by an author without a name."[19] There are also claims and counter-claims as to the
authorship of the book and to the exact number of couplets written by Valluvar.
Valluvar is thought to have belonged to either Jainism or Hinduism. This can be observed in his treatment
of the concept of ahimsa or non-violence, which is the principal concept of both the religions. Valluvar's
treatment of the chapters on moral vegetarianism (or veganism)[a] and non-killing reflects the Jain precepts,
where these are stringently enforced.[14] The three parts that the Kural is divided into,
namely, aram (virtue), porul (wealth) and inbam (love), aiming at attaining veedu (ultimate salvation),
follow, respectively, the four foundations of Hinduism, namely, dharma, artha, kama and moksha.[16] His
mentioning of God Vishnu in couplets 610 and 1103 and Goddess Lakshmi in couplets 167, 408, 519, 565,
568, 616, and 617 suggests the Vaishnavite beliefs of Valluvar. Other eastern beliefs of Valluvar found in
the book include previous birth and rebirth, seven births, and some ancient Indian astrological concepts,
among others.[34] Despite using these contemporary religious concepts of his time, Valluvar has limited the
usage of these terms to a metaphorical sense to explicate the fundamental virtues and ethics, without
enforcing any of these religious beliefs in practice. This, chiefly, has made the treatise earn the title Ulaga
Podhu Marai (the universal scripture).[34]
There is also the recent claim by Kanyakumari Historical and Cultural Research Centre (KHCRC) that
Valluvar was a king who ruled Valluvanadu in the hilly tracts of the Kanyakumari district of Tamil
Nadu.[28] The only other book that is attributted to Valluvar other than the Kural text is Gnanavetti, a text
that deals with spiritual aspects, due to which the author is also known as "Gnanavettiyan."[35]

Structural plan of the work[edit]

The statue of Valluvar, the author of the Kural text, at Kanyakumari

Having written by a single author, the Kural literature reveals a single structural plan.[36] The Kural is not
an anthology for there is not any later additions to the text.[37] According to Kamil Zvelebil, the content of
the Kural text is "undoubtedly patterned."[38] The entire work has been structured very carefully without an
allowance for any structural gaps in the text such that every couplet remains indispensable for the
structured whole. Thus, one can find two distinct meanings for every couplet in the Kural literature,
namely, a structural one and a proverbial one. In their isolated form, that is, when removed from the
content-structure, the couplets lose their structural meaning, the most important of the two, with the
isolated distiches still remaining charming and interesting in themselves. This simply makes the isolated
couplet a wise saying or a moral maxim, "a 'literary proverb' in perfect form, possessing, in varying degree,
the prosodic and rhetoric qualities of gnomic poetry."[39] On the other hand, within the content-structure,
the couplets acquire their structural meaning in relation to other couplets, forming higher patterns, and
finally, in relation to the entire work, they acquire perfection in the totality of their structure.[39]
According to Pavalareru Perunchithiranar, Valluvar has employed 28 different methods of conveying
thoughts in the Kural text.[40]
Substance of the work[edit]
Written with the contemporary society in view[41] and marked by pragmatic idealism,[42] the Kural text is
unique among the ancient literature in terms of both its poetic and its intellectual accomplishments.[43] In
poetic terms, it fuses verse and aphoristic form in diction in a "pithy, vigorous, forceful and terse" manner.
In intellectual terms, it is written on the basis of secular ethics, expounding a universal, moral and practical
attitude towards life. Unlike religious scriptures, the Kural refrains from talking of hopes and promises of
the other-worldly life. Rather it speaks of the ways of cultivating one's mind to achieve the other-worldly
bliss in the present life itself. By occasionally referring to bliss beyond the worldly life, Valluvar equates
what can be achieved in humanly life with what may be attained thereafter.[4] Only in a couple of
introductory chapters (Chapters 1 and 3) does Valluvar sound religious. Even here, he maintains a tone that
could be acceptable to people of all faiths.[28][44]
It is believed that Valluvar composed every chapter in response to a request to produce ten best couplets on
a particular subject. Nevertheless, he seldom shows any concern as to what similes and superlatives he
used earlier while writing on other subjects, purposely allowing for some repetition and mild
contradictions in ideas one can find in the Kural text. Despite knowing its seemingly contradictory nature
from a purist point of view, Valluvar employs this method to emphasise the importance of the given code
of ethic. Following are some of the instances where Valluvar employs contradictions to expound the
virtues.[28]

 While in Chapter 93 Valluvar writes on the evils of intoxication, in

Chapter 109 he uses the same to show the sweetness of love by saying
love is sweeter than wine.
 To the question "What is wealth of all wealth?" Valluvar points out to
two different things, namely, grace (Kural 241) and hearing (Kural
411).
 In regard to the virtues one should follow dearly even at the expense of
other virtues, Valluvar points to veracity (Kural 297), not coveting
another's wife (Kural 150), and not being called a slanderer (Kural
181). In essence, however, in Chapter 33 he crowns non-killing as the
foremost of all virtues, pushing even the virtue of veracity to the
second place (Kural 323).
 Whereas he says that one can eject what is natural or inborn in him
(Kural 376), he indicates that one can overcome the inherent natural
flaws by getting rid of laziness (Kural 609).
 While in Chapter 7 he asserts that the greatest gain men can obtain is
by their learned children (Kural 61), in Chapter 13 he says that it is that
which is obtained by self-control (Kural 122).
Nevertheless, the basic ideas of Valluvar is found in the introductory section of the Kural, which includes
the first four chapters of the text. Valluvar begins this portion with the invocation of God and continues to
praise the rain for being the vitalizer of all life forms on earth and describe the qualities of a righteous
person, before concluding the introduction by emphasizing the value of aṟam or virtue.[45] Valluvar extols
rain next only to God for it provides food and serves as the basis of a stable economic life by aiding in
agriculture, which Valluvar asserts as the most important economic activity later in Book II of the Kural
text.[45][46]
"Alone, first of good things, is 'not to slay';
The second is, no untrue word to say."
(Kural 323; Pope, 1886).[47]

The entire writing of all the three books of the Kural text bases aṟam or dharma as its cornerstone, which
resulted in the Kural being referred to simply as Aṟam.[48][49][50] Contrary to what the Manusmriti says,
Valluvar holds that aṟam is common for all, irrespective of whether the person is a bearer of palanquin or
the rider in it.[51][52] The greatest of virtues according to Valluvar is non-killing, followed
by veracity,[53][54] which he plainly indicates in couplet 323,[55] and the two greatest sins that Valluvar feels
very strongly are ingratitude and meat-eating.[54][56][57] As observed by P. S. Sundaram in the introduction to
his work, while "all other sins may be redeemed, but never ingratitude," Valluvar couldn't understand "how
anyone could wish to fatten himself by feeding on the fat of others."[56] The Kural differs from every other
work on morality in that it follows ethics, surprisingly a divine one, even in its Book of Love.[58] In the
words of Gopalkrishna Gandhi, Valluvar maintains his views on personal morality even in the Book of
Love, where one can normally expect greater poetic leniency, by describing the hero as "a one-woman
man" without concubines.[41]

Comparison with other ancient literature[edit]

Palm leaf manuscript of the Tirukkural

Unlike the mystic philosopher of Lao Tzu or the law-giving prophets of the Judaeo-Christian tradition,
Valluvar remained a philosopher concerning with the day-to-day conduct of a common
individual.[28] Scholars compares the codes of virtue, nobility, propriety, just governance, conduct, social
obligations, self-control, education and knowledge with other ancient thoughts such as the Confucian
sayings in Lun Yu, Hitopadesa, Panchatantra, Manusmriti, Tirumandiram, Book of Proverbs in the Bible,
sayings of the Buddha in Dhammapada, and the ethical works of Persian origin such
as Gulistan and Bustan, in addition to the holy books of various religions.[28]
Similarities with ancient Indian literature[edit]
Several ancient Indian literature such as Manusmriti, Kautilya's Arthashastra, Kamandaka's Nitisara bear
likeness with the second book (Porul), the book on wealth, of the Kural text,
while Vatsyayana's Kamasutra shares similarities with Inbam, the third book of the Kural text (the book on
love).[16] However, the attitude and approach of Valluvar in expounding the virtues remain entirely different
from any of these contemporary works. While the Artha Shastra is based on subtle statecraft, the Porul of
the Kural text bases morality and benevolence as its cornerstones.[59] The social hierarchies and
discrimination found in Manusmriti are contrasted with Valluvar's concept of universal brotherhood and
oneness of humanity. Unlike Kamasutra, which is all about eros and techniques of sexual fulfillment, the
Kural text of Inbam remains a poetic appreciation of flowering human love as explicated by the Sangam
period's concept of intimacy, known as aham in the Tamil literary tradition.[4]
Similarities with Confucian thoughts[edit]
The Kural text and the Confucian sayings recorded in the classic Analects of Chinese (called Lun Yu,
meaning "Sacred Sayings") resemble each other in many ways. Both Valluvar and Confucius focused on
the behaviors and moral conducts of a common person. Similar to Valluvar, Confucius advocated legal
justice embracing human principles, courtesy, and filial piety, besides the virtues
of benevolence, righteousness, loyalty and trustworthiness as foundations of life.[60] Incidentally, Valluvar
differed from Confucius in two respects. Firstly, unlike Confucius, Valluvar was also a poet. Secondly,
Confucius did not deal with the subject of conjugal love, for which Valluvar devoted an entire division in
his work.[61]

Publication of the work[edit]

First known edition of the Kural, published in Tamil, in 1812.

Save for the highly educated circle of scholars and elites outside the Tamil land, the Kural remained
largely unknown to the outside world for close to one-and-a-half millennia. It had been passed on as word
of mouth from parents to their children and from preceptors to their students for generations within the
Tamil-speaking regions of South India. It was not until 1595 when the first translation of the work
appeared in Malayalam that the work became known to the wider circle outside the Tamil-speaking
communities.[62] The work first came to print in 1812, with the Kural text getting published in Tamil,
chiefly by the efforts of the then Collector of Madras Francis Whyte Ellis, who established the "Chennai
Kalvi Sangam."[63] It was published by Thanjai Gyanaprakash.[citation needed] It was only in 1835 that Indians
were permitted to establish printing press. Thus, the Kural became the first book to be published in
Tamil.[64] Soon, Mahalinga Iyer published the first 24 chapters of the Kural with commentaries for the first
time. In 1850, the complete work of the Kural was published with commentaries by Vedagiri Mudaliar,
who published a revised version later in 1853. This publication was later used by 'Vallalar' Ramalinga
Adigal to teach the Kural to the masses.[65]
In December 2018, the first edition of the Kural text in Tamil Brahmi script, the script that was in vogue
during Valluvar's time, was published by the International Institute of Tamil Studies (IITS). This made the
Kural text available for the first time in a script in which the work might have originally written probably
during the 1st century BCE or 1st century CE.[66]

Commentaries and translations[edit]

Main articles: Translations of Tirukkural, List of Tirukkural translations by language, and Tirukkural
translations into English
Commentaries[edit]
The Kural is arguably the most reviewed of all works in Tamil literature, and almost every notable scholar
has written commentaries (explanation in prose or verse) on it.[67][d] According to R. Ilankumaran, there are
four requisites necessary to write commentaries to the Kural text:[68]

1. The awareness that the meaning of everything that is written in the

Kural text is available in the work itself
2. A workable knowledge of the Tolkappiam
3. A thorough knowledge of the Sangam literature and landscape
4. A practical knowledge of how things work in their nature.
There have been several commentaries written on the Kural over the centuries. Many poets of the first few
centuries of the common era used various Kural couplets to illustrate their works. These include Ilango
Adigal, Seethalai Satthanar, Sekkilar, Kambar.[67] These can be considered the first commentaries to the
Kural text, albeit in verse form and incomplete.[67] In the centuries that followed, numerous commentators
of various other works employed Kural couplets to elaborate their ideas, providing explanations to the
couplets in the process, both in verse and in prose forms.[67] These include Adiyarkku Nallar,
Nacchinaarkiniyar, Mayilainathar, and Shankara Namacchivayar.[69]
Exclusive commentaries on the Kural text started appearing much later. There were at least ten medieval
commentaries written by pioneer poets of which only six are available today. The ten canonical medieval
commentators include Manakkudavar, Dharumar, Dhamatthar, Nacchar, Paridhiyar, Thirumalaiyar, Mallar
, Kaliperumal or Pari Perumal, Kaalingar, and Parimelazhagar, all of whom lived between the 10th and the
13th centuries CE. Of these, only the works of Manakkudavar, Paridhi, Kaalingar, Pari Perumal, and
Parimelazhagar are available today. The works of Dharumar, Dhaamatthar, and Nacchar are only partially
available. The commentaries by Thirumalaiyar and Mallar are lost. The pioneer among these
commentators are Parimelazhagar and Manakkudavar.[4][67][70] Besides these, there are three more medieval
commentaries written by unknown authors.[71] One of them was published under the title "Palaiya Urai"
(meaning ancient commentary), while the second one was based on Paridhiyar's commentary.[71] The third
one was published in 1991 under the title "Jaina Urai" (meaning Jaina commentary) by Saraswathi Mahal
Library in Thanjavur.[72] Following these medieval commentaries, there are at least 21 venba commentaries
to the Kural, including Somesar Mudumoli Venba, Murugesar Muduneri Venba, Sivasiva Venba, Irangesa
Venba, and Vadamalai Venba, all of which are considered commentaries in verse form.[73]
Several modern commentaries started appearing in the 19th and the 20th centuries. Some of the
commentaries of the 20th century include those by Iyothee Thass, V. O. Chidambaram Pillai, Thiru Vi
Ka, Bharathidasan, M. Varadarajan, Namakkal kavignar, Thirukkuralar V. Munusamy, Devaneya
Pavanar, M. Karunanithi, and Solomon Pappaiah.
Translations[edit]

Bas-relief inscriptions of the Kural couplets at Valluvar Kottam

The first translation known of the Kural text is a Malayalam translation that appeared in about 1595.
However, the manuscript remained unpublished and was first reported by the Annual Report of the Cochin
Archeological Department for the year 1933 to 1934.[62] The Christian missionaries who came
to India during the colonial era, inspired by the similarities of the Christian ideals found in the Kural,
started translating the text into various European languages.[74] The Latin translation of the Kural, the first
of the translations into European languages, was made by Constantius Joseph Beschi in 1730. However, he
translated only the first two parts, viz., virtue and wealth, leaving out the section on love assuming that it
would be inappropriate for a Christian missionary to do so. The first French translation was brought about
by an unknown author by about 1767 that went unnoticed. The first available French version was by
Monsieur Ariel in 1848. Again, he did not translate the whole work but only parts of it. The
first German translation was made by Dr. Karl Graul, who published it in 1856 both
at London and Leipzig. Graul's translation was unfortunately incomplete due to his premature death.[75] The
first, and incomplete, English translations were made by N. E. Kindersley in 1794 and then by Francis
Whyte Ellis in 1812. While Kindersley translated a selection of the Kural text, Ellis translated 120 couplets
in all—69 of them in verse and 51 in prose.[63][76] W. H. Drew translated the first two parts in prose in 1840
and 1852, respectively. It contained the original Tamil text of the Kural, Parimelazhagar's commentary,
Ramanuja Kavirayar's amplification of the commentary and Drew's English prose translation. However,
Drew was able to translate only 630 couplets, and the remaining were made by John Lazarus, a native
missionary. Like Beschi, Drew did not translate the part on love.[77] The first complete English translation
of the Kural was the one by George Uglow Pope in 1886, which brought the Kural to the western world.[78]
By the end of the 20th century, there were about 24 translations of the Kural in English alone, by both
native and non-native scholars, including those by V. V. S. Aiyar, K. M. Balasubramaniam, Shuddhananda
Bharati, A. Chakravarti, M. S. Purnalingam Pillai, C. Rajagopalachari, P. S. Sundaram, V. R.
Ramachandra Dikshitar, G. Vanmikanathan, Kasturi Srinivasan, S. N. Sriramadesikan, and K. R. Srinivasa
Iyengar.[79] At present, the Kural has been translated into 37 languages.[13] It is also said that the work has
also been translated into Vaagri Booli, the language of the Narikuravas, a tribal community in Tamil
Nadu.[80] It is the most translated Tamil literature and also the most translated non-religious text of India.
Translational difficulties[edit]
With a highly compressed prosodic form, the Kural text employs the intricately complex Kural
venba metre, known for its eminent suitability to gnomic poetry.[81] This form, which Zvelebil calls "a
marvel of brevity and condensation," is closely connected with the structural properties of the Tamil
language and has historically presented extreme difficulties to its translators.[82] Talking about translating
the Kural into other languages, Herbert Arthur Popley observes, "it is impossible in any translation to do
justice to the beauty and force of the original."[83] Zvelebil claims that it is impossible to truly appreciate the
maxims found in the Kural couplets through a translation but rather that the Kural has to be read and
understood in its original Tamil form.[30]
Besides these inherent difficulties in translating the Kural, some scholars have attempted to either read
their own ideas into the Kural couplets or deliberately misinterpret the message to make it conform to their
preconceived notions. The Latin translation by Father Beshi, for instance, contains several such
mistranslations noticed by modern scholars. According to V. Ramasamy, "Beschi is purposely distorting
the message of the original when he renders பிறவாழி as ‘the sea of miserable life’ and the phrase
பிறவிப் பபருங் கடல் as ‘sea of this birth’ which has been translated by others as ‘the sea of many
births’. Beschi means thus ‘those who swim the vast sea of miseries’. The concept of rebirth or many
births for the same soul is contrary to Christian principle and belief."[84]

Memorials[edit]
Statue of Valluvar at SOAS, University of London.

The Kural text and its author have been highly venerated over the centuries. In the early 16th century,
a temple was constructed in Mylapore, Chennai, in honor of Valluvar. It was extensively renovated in the
1970s.[85] There are also temples for Valluvar at Periya Kalayamputhur, Thondi, Kanjoor
Thattanpady, Senapathy, and Vilvarani.[86]
In 1976, Valluvar Kottam, a monument to honor the Kural literature and its author, was constructed
in Chennai. The chief element of the monument includes a 39-m-high chariot, a replica of the chariot in the
temple town of Thiruvarur, and it contains a life-size statue of Valluvar. All the 1,330 verses of the Kural
text are inscribed on bas-relief in the corridors in the main hall.
Statues of Valluvar have been erected across the globe, including the ones at Kanyakumari,
Chennai, Bengaluru, Haridwar, Puttalam, Singapore, and London.[87] The tallest of these is the 133-feet
(40.6 m) stone statue of Valluvar erected in 2000 atop a small island in the town of Kanyakumari on the
southernmost tip of the Indian peninsula, at the confluence of the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea, and
the Indian Ocean.[88] This statue is currently India's 25th tallest.

Reception[edit]
Main article: Praise of Tirukkural
An ancient portrait of Valluvar

While it has been widely acknowledged that Valluvar was of Jain origin[4][14] and the Kural to its most part
was inspired from Jain, Hindu and other ancient Indian philosophies,[14][89] owing to its universality and
non-denominational nature, almost every religious group in India and across the world,
including Christianity, has claimed the work for itself. For example, G. U. Pope speaks of the book as an
"echo of the 'Sermon on the Mount.'" In the Introduction to his English translation of the Kural, Pope even
claims, "I cannot feel any hesitation in saying that the Christian Scriptures were among the sources from
which the poet derived his inspiration." However, the chapters on the ethics of moral
vegetarianism (Chapter 26) and non-killing (Chapter 33), which the Kural emphasizes emphatically unlike
the Bible[90] or other Abrahamic religious texts,[91] suggest that the ethics of the Kural is rather a reflection
of the Jaina moral code than of Christian ethics.[14] J. M. Nallaswamy Pillai dismisses Pope’s statement as
“an absurd literary anachronism,” citing the Kural text as “a stumbling block which can browbeat the most
sublime ideas of Christian morality.”[92]
The Kural is praised for its universality across the globe. The ancient Tamil poet Avvaiyar observed,
"Valluvar pierced an atom and injected seven seas into it and compressed it into what we have today as
Kural."[93][94] The Russian philosopher Alexander Piatigorsky called it chef d'oeuvre of both Indian and
world literature "due not only to the great artistic merits of the work but also to the lofty humane ideas
permeating it which are equally precious to the people all over the world, of all periods and countries."[9] G.
U. Pope called its author "a bard of universal man."[95] According to Albert Schweitzer, "there hardly exists
in the literature of the world a collection of maxims in which we find so much of lofty wisdom."[94] Leo
Tolstoy called it "the Hindu Kural,"[96] and Mahatma Gandhi called it "a textbook of indispensable
authority on moral life" and went on to say, "The maxims of Valluvar have touched my soul. There is none
who has given such a treasure of wisdom like him."[94] Sir A. Grant said, "Humility, charity and forgiveness
of injuries, being Christian qualities, are not described by Aristotle. Now these three are everywhere
forcibly inculcated by the Tamil Moralist."[97] Edward Jewitt Robinson said that the Kural contains all
things and there is nothing which it does not contain.[94] Rev. John Lazarus said, "No Tamil work can ever
approach the purity of the Kural. It is a standing repute to modern Tamil."[94] According to K. M. Munshi,
"Thirukkural is a treatise par excellence on the art of living."[94] Sri Aurobindo stated, "Thirukkural is
gnomic poetry, the greatest in planned conception and force of execution ever written in this
kind."[94] Monsieur Ariel, who translated and published the third part of the Kural to French in 1848, called
it "a masterpiece of Tamil literature, one of the highest and purest expressions of human
thought."[19] According to Rev. Emmons E. White, "Thirukkural is a synthesis of the best moral teachings
of the world."[94] Rajaji commented, "It is the gospel of love and a code of soul-luminous life. The whole of
human aspiration is epitomized in this immortal book, a book for all ages."[94] Zakir Hussain,
former President of India, said, "Thirukkural is a treasure house of worldly knowledge, ethical guidance
and spiritual wisdom."[94]
Along with Nalatiyar, another work on ethics and morality from the Sangam period, the Kural is praised
for its veracity. An age-old Tamil maxim has it that "banyan and neem maintain oral health; Four and Two
maintain moral health," where "Four" and "Two" refer to the quatrains and couplets of Nalatiyar and the
Kural, respectively.

In popular culture[edit]

A Kural couplet on display inside a Chennai Metro train

With the rediscovery of the image of Valluvar in 1959, the portrait of the author with matted hair and a
flowing beard, as drawn by artist K. R. Venugopal Sharma in 1960,[24] was accepted by the state and central
governments as the standardised version. It soon became a popular and the standard portrait of the
poet.[41] In 1964, the image was unveiled in the Indian Parliament by the then President of India Zakir
Hussain. In 1967, the Tamil Nadu government passed an order stating that the image of Valluvar should be
present in all government offices across the state of Tamil Nadu.[98][e]
The Kural does not appear to have been set in music by Valluvar. However, a number of musicians have
set it to tune and several singers have rendered it in their concerts. Modern composers who have tuned the
Kural couplets include Mayuram Viswanatha Sastri and Ramani Bharadwaj. Singers who have performed
full-fledged Tirukkural concerts include M. M. Dandapani Desikar and Chidambaram C. S.
Jayaraman.[99] Madurai Somasundaram and Sanjay Subramanian are other people who have given musical
rendering of the Kural. Mayuram Vishwanatha Shastri set all the verses to music in the early 20th
century.[100] In January 2016, Chitravina N. Ravikiran set the entire 1330 verses to music in a record time of
16 hours.[99][101] It can be said that it was cinema that made the general public hear Tirukkural being sung.
For instance, K. Balachander's Kavithalayaa Productions opened its films with the very first couplet of the
Kural sung in the background.[99]
Several Tirukkural conferences were conducted in the twentieth century, most famously by Tirukkural V.
Munusamy in 1941[102] and by Periyar E. V. Ramasamy in 1949. The 1949 conference, headed by Thiru.
Vi. Ka, T. P. Meenakshisundaram, and A. Chakravarti, was held for two days on 15 and 16 January, with
several scholars and celebrities participating in it, including S. Somasundara Bharathi, Kandhasami
Mudaliyar, Tirukkuralar Munusamy, C. Ilakkuvanar, S. Mutthaiyah Mudaliyar, K. Appadurai, Pulavar
Kulandhai, Actor N. S. Krishnan, and the later-day Chief Minister of the state C. N. Annadurai.[103]
In 1818, the then Collector of Madras Francis Whyte Ellis, who had a high regard for Valluvar and his
work, issued a gold coin bearing Valluvar's image when he was made in charge of the Madras treasury and
mint.[24][f][g] In the late 19th century, the South Indian saint Vallalar launched a movement in Vadalur to
teach Tirukkural to the masses.[65][104] In 1968, the Tamil Nadu government made it mandatory to display a
Kural couplet in all government buses.[24] The train running a distance of 2,921 kilometers between
Kanyakumari and New Delhi is named by the Indian Railways as the Thirukural Express.[105] Kural also
remains an integral part of the lifestyle of Tamil-speaking populations that it is propagated through various
means such as music,[99] dance,[106] street shows,[107] recitals,[108] activities,[109] and puzzles and riddles.[110]

Legacy[edit]
Statue of Valluvar at Kanyakumari.

The Kural remains one of the most influential texts of ancient India and the chief text of the Tamil
language, influencing generations of scholars at a pan-Indian expanse.[62] The work had influenced people
from all walks of lives, which can be inferred from the parallels found in the literatures of various
languages within the Indian Subcontinent.[111] Although translations of the work into other Indian languages
were not available until at least the 16th century, the work had been studied by other language scholars for
centuries before the foreign invasion of India.[62] With its translations into European languages starting
from the early 18th century, Kural began to have a global influence. Besides numerous poets of
the Sangam era including Avvaiyar I and Kapilar, authors influenced by the Kural include Ilango
Adigal, Seethalai Satthanar, Sekkilar, Kambar, Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, Albert
Schweitzer, Vallalar, Monsieur Ariel, Constantius Joseph Beschi, Karl Graul, August Friedrich
Caemmerer, Nathaniel Edward Kindersley, Francis Whyte Ellis, Charles E. Gover, George Uglow
Pope, Vinoba Bhave, Alexander Piatigorsky, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, and Yu Hsi. Many of these authors
have translated the work into their languages.[104][112]
Historically, the Kural experienced a few centuries of hiatus soon after its writing, dubbed the "Dark Age,"
following which it enjoyed a revival period when the teachings of the Kural started to influence people
greatly.[113] A notable example was from the period of Karikalan during the 1st century CE, when the Chola
ruler was influenced by the Kural to undertake several historically significant agricultural reforms,
including reclaiming lands and building dams.[114] Another example was during the Pallava Dynasty when
the people had to face the Kalabhra invasion around 250 CE.[45]
Kural remains the only work that was honored with an exclusive work of compiled paeans in the Sangam
literature, authored by 55 different poets, including legendary ones.[4] Kural also remains the most cited
work during the Sangam era and the most quoted Tamil work ever since. Classical works such as
the Purananuru, Manimekalai, Silappathikaram, Periya Puranam, and Kamba Ramayanam all cite the
Kural by various names, bestowing numerous titles to the work that was originally untitled by its
author.[115] In Kamba Ramayanam, poet Kambar has used as many as 1100 couplets of the Kural.[116]
The Kural text was first included in the school syllabus by the then British government.[117] However, only
select 275 couplets have been taught to the schoolchildren between III to XII Standards.[118] Attempts to
include the Kural literature as a compulsory subject in schools were ineffective in the decades
following Independence.[119] On 26 April 2016, the Madras High Court directed the state government to
include all the 108 chapters of the Books of Aram and Porul of the Kural text in school syllabus for classes
VI through XII from the academic year 2017–2018 "to build a nation with moral values."[119] The court
observed, "No other philosophical or religious work has such moral and intellectual approach to problems
of life."[120]
The Kural has inspired many to pursue the path of ahimsa or non-violence. Leo Tolstoy was inspired by
the concept of non-violence found in the Kural when he read a German version of the book, who in turn
instilled the concept in Mahatma Gandhi through his A Letter to a Hindu when young Gandhi sought his
guidance.[94][96] Gandhi then took to studying the Kural in prison, which eventually culminated in his
starting the non-violence movement to fight against the British.[4] It is said that Gandhi had learnt Tamil
only to read the original text of the Kural.[120] Vallalar was inspired by the Kural at a young age and spent
his whole life promoting compassion and non-violence, emphasizing on a compassionate, non-killing, and
meatless way of life.[104][121]

See also[edit]
  Eastern philosophy
 List of Tirukkural translations by language
 Glossary of names for the Tirukkural
 Tiruvalluva Maalai
 Nalatiyar
 Sangam literature
 A Letter to a Hindu by Leo Tolstoy
 List of literary works by number of translations
 Tao Te Ching
 Manu Smriti
 Vedas
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Notes[edit]
a. ^ The Kural insists on "moral vegetarianism", the doctrine that humans are morally obligated to refrain from eating
meat or harming sentient beings,[122] known as "veganism" since the 20th century, as described by Mylan Engel in his
"The Immorality of Eating Meat" (2000).[123] The concept of ahimsa or இன்னா பெய் யாமம, which remains the
moral foundation of veganism,[124] is described in the chapter on non-violence (Chapter 32).[125]
b. ^ The couplets are generally numbered in a linear fashion across the three books, covering all the 1,330 couplets.
They can also be denoted by their chapter number and couplet number within the chapter. Thus, the third couplet in
Chapter 104 (Agriculture), for instance, can be numbered either as 1033 or, less commonly, as 104:3.
c. ^ The Valluvar Year is obtained by adding 31 years to the present Gregorian year.[32]
d. ^ Commentary refers to prosaic interpretations written by various scholars for the original verse form of the Kural
couplets. These commentaries are chiefly written in Tamil by pioneer writers over the millennia. In highly canonical
literary works and works of poetry, such as the Silappathikaram and Kamba Ramayanam, commentary can also
appear in verse form, often blending with the work inseparably. Translation, on the other hand, refers to any
interpretation, either in prose or in verse, verbatim or otherwise, of the Kural couplets in other languages. Thus, any
commentary written in a language other than Tamil is considered a prose translation of the Tamil original in that
particular language.
e. ^ Government of Tamil Nadu, G. O. Ms. 1193, dated 1967.[98]
f. ^ A stone inscription found on the walls of a well at the Periya Palayathamman temple at Royapettai indicates Ellis'
regard for Valluvar. It is one of the 27 wells dug on the orders of Ellis in 1818, when Madras suffered a severe
drinking water shortage. In the long inscription Ellis praises Valluvar and uses a couplet from the Tirukkural to
explain his actions during the drought. When he was in charge of the Madras treasury and mint, he also issued a gold
coin bearing Valluvar's image. The Tamil inscription on his grave makes note of his commentary of Tirukkural. [126]
g. ^ The original inscription in Tamil written in the asiriyapa metre and first-person perspective: (The Kural he quotes
is in italics)
ெயங் பகாண்ட பதாண்டிய ொணுறு நாபடனும் | ஆழியில் இமைத்த வைகுறு மாமணி |
குணகடன் முதலாக குட கடலளவு | பநடுநிலம் தாை நிமிர்ந்திடு பென்னப் | பட்டணத்து
எல் லீென் என்பவன் யானன | பண்டாரகாரிய பாரம் சுமக்மகயில் | புலவர்கள் பபருமான்
மயிமலயம் பதியான் | பதய் வப் புலமமத் திருவள் ளுவனார் | திருக்குறள் தன்னில்
திருவுளம் பற் றிய் | இருபுனலும் வாய் த்த மமலயும் வருபுனலும் | வல் லரணும் நாட்டிற்
குறுப் பு | என்பதின் பபாருமள என்னுள் ஆய் ந்து | ஸ்வஸ்திஸ்ரீ ொலிவாகன ெகாப் த வரு |
..றாெ் பெல் லா நின்ற | இங் கிலிசு வரு 1818ம் ஆண்டில் | பிரபவாதி வருக்கு னமற் பெல் லா
நின்ற | பஹுதான்ய வரு த்தில் வார திதி | நக்ஷத்திர னயாக கரணம் பார்த்து | சுப திநத்தி
லிதனனா டிருபத்னதழு | துரவு கண்டு புண்ணியாஹவாெநம் | பண்ணுவித்னதன்.

Citations[edit]
1. ^ C. Blackburn, 2000, pp. 449–482.
2. ^ Pillai, 1994.
3. ^ Jump up to:a b Manavalan, 2009, p. 24.
4. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i Lal, 1992, pp. 4333–4334.
5. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Zvelebil, 1975, p. 124.
6. ^ Jump up to:a b Manavalan, 2009, p. 22.
7. ^ Jump up to:a b Zvelebil, 1973, pp. 155–156.
8. ^ Sanjeevi, 1973, pp. 10–16.
9. ^ Jump up to:a b Pyatigorsky, n.d., p. 515.
10. ^ Cutler, 1992.
11. ^ Velusamy and Faraday, 2017, pp. 7–13.
12. ^ Sundaramurthi, 2000, p. 624.
13. ^ Jump up to:a b Ashraf, n.d.
14. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f Zvelebil, 1973, pp. 156-171.
15. ^ Velusamy and Faraday, 2017, pp. 63–80.
16. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f Sundaram, 1990, pp. 7–16.
17. ^ Nedunchezhiyan, 1991, p. vii.
18. ^ Kowmareeshwari, 2012a, pp. iv–vi.
19. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Pope, 1886, p. i (Introduction).
20. ^ Pillai, 1972, p. 3.
21. ^ Lal, 1992, pp. 4333, 4341.
22. ^ Pillai, 1972, pp. 5–7.
23. ^ Aravindan, 1968, p. 105.
24. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Velusamy and Faraday, 2017, pp. 54–55.
25. ^ Jump up to:a b c Kumar, 1999, pp. 91–92.
26. ^ Mukherjee, 1999, pp. 392–393.
27. ^ Sharma, 2018, pp. 119–121.
28. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g SSP, 2012, pp. vii–xvi.
29. ^ Zvelebil, 1973, p. 156.
30. ^ Jump up to:a b Zvelebil, 1973, p. 169.
31. ^ Jump up to:a b Zvelebil, 1973, p. 171.
32. ^ Jump up to:a b Thiruvalluvar Ninaivu Malar, 1935, p. 117.
33. ^ Acharya.iitm.ac.in, n.d.
34. ^ Jump up to:a b Natarajan, 2008, pp. 1–6.
35. ^ Aranga Ramalingam, 1994.
36. ^ Zvelebil, 1973, pp. 160.
37. ^ Zvelebil, 1973, pp. 158–160.
38. ^ Zvelebil, 1973, p. 163.
39. ^ Jump up to:a b Zvelebil, 1973, pp. 158–163.
40. ^ Perunchithiranar, 1933.
41. ^ Jump up to:a b c Parthasarathy, The Hindu, 12 December 2015.
42. ^ Top 12 Economists of India.
43. ^ Lal, 1992, p. 4333.
44. ^ Velusamy and Faraday, 2017, pp. 36–37.
45. ^ Jump up to:a b c Hajela, 2008, p. 895.
46. ^ Manavalan, 2009, p. 27.
47. ^ Pope, 1886, p. 44.
48. ^ Alathur Kilar, pp. Verse 34.
49. ^ Kowmareeshwari, 2012b, pp. 46–47.
50. ^ Velusamy and Faraday, 2017, p. 55.
51. ^ Valluvar, pp. Verse 37.
52. ^ Visveswaran, 2016, pp. ix–xi.
53. ^ Lal, 1992, pp. 4341–4342.
54. ^ Jump up to:a b Sethupillai, 1956, pp. 34–36.
55. ^ Valluvar, pp. Verse 323.
56. ^ Jump up to:a b Sundaram, 1990, p. 13.
57. ^ Jagannathan, 1963, pp. 162–163.
58. ^ Manavalan, 2009, p. 26.
59. ^ Hajela, 2008, pp. 901–902.
60. ^ Balasubramanian, 2016, pp. 104-111.
61. ^ Anonymous 1999, p. vii.
62. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Sanjeevi, 1973, pp. 44–49.
63. ^ Jump up to:a b S. Blackburn, 2006, pp. 92–95.
64. ^ Madhavan, The Hindu, 21 June 2010.
65. ^ Jump up to:a b Kolappan, The Hindu, 3 October 2018.
66. ^ Muruganandham, The New Indian Express, 12 December 2018.
67. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e Aravindan, 1968, p. 337.
68. ^ Ilankumaran, 2018, p. xi.
69. ^ Aravindan, 1968, p. 338.
70. ^ Natarajan, 2008, p. 2.
71. ^ Jump up to:a b Aravindan, 1968, p. 339.
72. ^ Balasubramanian, 2016, p. 129.
73. ^ Nedunchezhiyan, 1991, p. ix.
74. ^ Ramasamy, 2001, pp. 28–47.
75. ^ Ramasamy, 2001, pp. 30–31.
76. ^ Zvelebil, 1992.
77. ^ Ramasamy, 2001, p. 31.
78. ^ Ramasamy, 2001, p. 32.
79. ^ Ramasamy, 2001, p. 36.
80. ^ The Hindu, 25 March 2013.
81. ^ Zvelebil, 1973, p. 166.
82. ^ Zvelebil, 1973, p. 167.
83. ^ Popley, 1931, p. x.
84. ^ Ramasamy, 2001, p. 33.
85. ^ Chakravarthy and Ramachandran, 2009.
86. ^ Vedanayagam, 2017, p. 113.
87. ^ Vedanayagam, 2017, pp. 110–111.
88. ^ The Hindu, 2 January 2000.
89. ^ Venkataramanan, The Hindu, 12 January 2018.
90. ^ Deuteronomy 14:3–14:29
91. ^ Quran 5:1–5 (Translated by Pickthall)
92. ^ Manavalan, 2009, pp. 26–27.
93. ^ Avvaiyar, pp. Verse 55.
94. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i j k Rajaram, 2009, pp. xviii–xxi.
95. ^ Rajaram, 2015, p. vi.
96. ^ Jump up to:a b Tolstoy, 1908.
97. ^ Pope, 1886, p. xii (Introduction).
98. ^ Jump up to:a b Sharma, 2018, pp. 41–42.
99. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Rangan, The Hindu, 19 March 2016.
100. ^ Music Academy Conference lectures, 2017.
101. ^ Deccan Herald, 31 March 2018.
102. ^ Periyannan, 2013.
103. ^ Veeramani, 2015, pp. 326–348.
104. ^ Jump up to:a b c Subbaraman, 2015, pp. 39–42.
105. ^ IndianRailInfo, n.d.
106. ^ Venkatasubramanian, The Hindu, 26 April 2018.
107. ^ Venkataramanan, The Hindu, 22 April 2010.
108. ^ Madhavan, The Hindu, 26 August 2016.
109. ^ Ramakrishnan, The Hindu, 4 September 2006.
110. ^ Sujatha, The Hindu, 11 July 2016.
111. ^ Sanjeevi, 1973, pp. 50–55.
112. ^ Lal, 1992, pp. 4333–4334, 4341–4342.
113. ^ Hajela, 2008, pp. 894–895.
114. ^ Hajela, 2008, p. 899.
115. ^ Jagannathan, 1963, pp. 16–30.
116. ^ Desikar, 1975.
117. ^ TNN, The Times of India, 26 July 2017.
 118. ^ Ashok, Live Law.in, 1 May 2016.
119. ^ Jump up to:a b Saravanan, The Times of India, 27 April 2016.
120. ^ Jump up to:a b The Hindu, 27 April 2016.
121. ^ Sivagnanam, 1974, p. 96.
122. ^ Parimelalhagar, 2009, pp. 256–266, 314–336.
123. ^ Engel, 2000, pp. 856–889.
124. ^ Dinshah, 2010.
125. ^ Parimelalhagar, 2009, pp. 314–324.
126. ^ Mahadevan, n.d.

References[edit]
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Journals and Magazines[edit]

 Blackburn, Cutler (2000). "Corruption and Redemption: The Legend of

Valluvar and Tamil Literary History". Modern Asian Studies. 34 (2): 449–
482. doi:10.1017/S0026749X00003632. Archived from the original on 3
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the creation of a text". The Journal of the American Oriental Society. 122.
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 Pradeep Chakravarthy and Ramesh Ramachandran (August 16–31,
2009). "Thiruvalluvar's shrine". Madras Musings. XIX (9). Retrieved 13
May 2017.
 Dinshah, Freya (2010). "American Vegan Society: 50 Years" (PDF). American
Vegan. 2. Vol. 10 no. 1 (Summer 2010). Vineland, NJ: American Vegan
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 Sharma, Sriram (29 August 2018). " வரலாற் றுப் பிமை". Tughluq
[Tamil]: 41–42.

Newspapers[edit]

 Madhavan, Karthik (21 June 2010). "Tamil saw its first book in 1578". The
Hindu. Coimbatore: Kasturi & Sons. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
 "Thirukkural now in Arabic". The Hindu. Chennai: The Hindu. 25 March
2013. Retrieved 18 Nov 2017.
 "CM unveils Thiruvalluvar statue". The Hindu. Kanyakumari: Kasturi & Sons.
2 January 2000. Retrieved 24 December 2016.
  Rangan, Baradwaj (19 March 2016). "A musical bridge across eras". The
Hindu. Kasturi & Sons. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
 "There's no stopping him". Deccan Herald. Daily Hunt. 31 March 2018.
Retrieved 29 July 2018.
 Parthasarathy, Indira (12 December 2015). "Couplets for modern times". The
Hindu. Kasturi & Sons. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
 Venkatramanan, Geetha (12 January 2018). "Tirukkural — essence of all
scriptures". The Hindu. Kasturi & Sons. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
 Venkatramanan, Geetha (22 April 2010). "Tirukkural as way of life". The
Hindu. Kasturi & Sons. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
 Sujatha, R. (11 July 2016). "Finding a new pattern in Tirukkural". The Hindu.
Kasturi & Sons. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
 Venkatasubramanian, V (26 April 2018). "Tamil couplets set to dance". The
Hindu. Kanchipuram: Kasturi & Sons. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
 Madhavan, D. (26 August 2016). "Divided by language and culture, united by
love for Tirukkural". The Hindu. Chennai: Kasturi & Sons. Retrieved 6
September2018.
 Ramakrishnan, Deepa H. (4 September 2006). "An exercise to the tune of
Tirukkural". The Hindu. Pondicherry: Kasturi & Sons. Retrieved 6
September2018.
 Kolappan, B. (3 October 2018). "First printed Tirukkural to be republished
after 168 years". The Hindu. Chennai: Kasturi & Sons. Retrieved 5
October 2018.
 TNN (26 July 2017). "Teach Thirukkural to next generation: high court
judge". The Times of India. Madurai: The Times Group. Retrieved 6
November 2018.
 Saravanan, L. (27 April 2016). "Include 108 chapters of 'Thirukkural' in
school syllabus, HC tells govt". The Times of India. Madurai: The Times
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 "High Court orders in-depth study of Tirukkural compulsory in schools". The
Hindu. Madurai: Kasturi & Sons. 27 April 2016. Retrieved 6 November 2018.
 Muruganandham, T. (12 December 2012). "Thirukkural couplets now in
Brahmi Tamizhi script". The New Indian Express. Chennai: Express
Publications. Retrieved 13 December 2018.

Online[edit]

 Ashraf, N. V. K. (n.d.). "Thirukkural translations in different languages of the

world". Retrieved 13 August 2016.
 Ashok, K. M. (1 May 2016). "Teach Thirukkural in schools to build a Nation
with Moral Values, Madras HC tells Govt". LiveLaw.in. LiveLaw.in.
Retrieved 6 November 2018.
 "Music Academy Conference lectures". 2017.
 Mahadevan, Iravatham. "The Golden coin depicting Thiruvalluvar -
2". Varalaaru.com (in Tamil). Retrieved 25 June 2010.
 Periyannan, G. (5 September 2013). "Tirukkural V. Munusamy". All India
Tamil Writers' Association. Missing or empty |url= (help); |access-
date= requires |url= (help)
 Shailesh, Kirti (n.d.). "List of Top 12 Famous Economist of
India". EconomicsDiscussion.net. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
 Tolstoy, Leo (14 December 1908). "A Letter to A Hindu: The Subjection of
India-Its Cause and Cure". The Literature Network. The Literature Network.
Retrieved 12 February 2012. THE HINDU KURAL
 "Tirukkural Super Fast Express". Indian Rail Info. n.d. Retrieved 14
October2018.

Further reading[edit]
  Blackburn, Stuart. (2000, May). Corruption and Redemption: The Legend of
Valluvar and Tamil Literary History. Modern Asian Studies, vol. 34, no. 2,
pp. 449–482.
 Das, G. N. (1997). Readings from Thirukkural (Sanskrit text with English
translation). Abhinav Publications. 134 pp. ISBN 8-1701-7342-6.
 Diaz, S. M. (2000). Tirukkural with English Translation and
Explanation.(Mahalingam, N., General Editor; 2 volumes), Coimbatore, India:
Ramanandha Adigalar Foundation.
 Drew, W. H. Translated by John Lazarus, Thirukkural (Original in Tamil with
English Translation), ISBN 81-206-0400-8
 Gnanasambandan, A. S. (1994). Kural Kanda Vaazhvu. Chennai: Gangai
Puthaga Nilayam.
 Udaiyar Koil Guna. (n.d.). திருக்குறள் ஒரு னதசிய நூல் [Tirukkural:
A National Book] (Pub. No. 772). Chennai: International Institute of Tamil
Studies.
 Karunanidhi, M. (1996). Kuraloviam. Chennai: Thirumagal Nilayam.
 Klimkeit, Hans-Joachim. (1971). Anti-religious Movement in Modern South
India(in German). Bonn, Germany: Ludwig Roehrscheid Publication,
pp. 128–133.
 Kuppusamy, R. (n.d.). Tirkkural: Thatthuva, Yoga, Gnyana
Urai [Hardbound]. Salem: Leela Padhippagam. 1067
pp. https://vallalars.blogspot.in/2017/05/thirukkural-thathuva-yoga-gnayna-
urai.html
 Nehring, Andreas. (2003). Orientalism and Mission (in German). Wiesbaden,
Germany: Harrasowitz Publication.
 M. S. Purnalingam Pillai. (n.d.). Critical Studies in Kural. Chennai:
International Institute of Tamil Studies.
 Subramaniyam, Ka Naa. (1987). Tiruvalluvar and his Tirukkural. New Delhi:
Bharatiya Jnanpith.
 Thirukkural with English Couplets L'Auberson, Switzerland: Editions
ASSA, ISBN 978-2-940393-17-6.
 Thirunavukkarasu, K. D. (1973). Tributes to Tirukkural: A compilation.
In: First All India Tirukkural Seminar Papers. Madras: University of Madras
Press. Pp 124.
 Varadharasan, Mu. (1974). Thirukkual Alladhu Vaazhkkai Vilakkam. Chennai:
Pari Nilayam.
 Varadharasan, Mu. (1996). Tamil Ilakkiya Varalaru. New Delhi: Sakitya
Academy.
 Viswanathan, R. (2011). Thirukkural: Universal Tamil Scripture (Along with
the Commentary of Parimelazhagar in English) (Including Text in Tamil and
Roman). New Delhi: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. 278 pp. ISBN 978-8-1727-
6448-7
 Yogi Shuddhananda Bharati (Trans.). (1995, May 15). Thirukkural with
English Couplets. Chennai: Tamil Chandror Peravai.
 Zvelebil, K. (1962). Foreword. In: Tirukkural by Tiruvalluvar (Translated by
K. M. Balasubramaniam). Madras: Manali Lakshmana Mudaliar Specific
Endowments. 327 pages.

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