Kural

The Tirukkuṟaḷ (Tamil: திருக்குறள், lit. 'sacred verses'), or shortly the Kural (Tamil: குறள்), is a classic Tamil language text on commoner's morality consisting of 1,330 short couplets, or kurals, of seven words each.[1] The text is divided into three books with aphoristic teachings on virtue (aram), wealth (porul) and love (inbam), respectively.[2][3][4] It is widely acknowledged for its universality and secular nature.[5][6] Its authorship is traditionally attributed to 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 and that it was composed after the Sangam period.[7]

The Kural text is among the earliest systems of Indian epistemology and metaphysics. The work is traditionally praised with epithets and alternative titles, including "the Tamil Veda" and "the Divine Book."[8][9] Written on the ideas of ahimsa,[10][11][12][13][14] it emphasizes non-violence and moral vegetarianism as virtues for an individual.[15][16][17][18][19] In addition, it highlights virtues such as truthfulness, self-restraint, gratitude, hospitality, kindness, goodness of spouse, duty, giving, and so forth,[20] besides covering a wide range of social and political topics such as king, ministers, taxes, justice, forts, war, greatness of army and soldier's honor, death sentence for the wicked, agriculture, education, and abstinence from alcohol and intoxicants.[21][22][23] It also includes chapters on friendship, love, sexual unions, and domestic life.[20][24] The text effectively denounced previously-held misbeliefs that were common during the Sangam era and permanently redefined the cultural values of the Tamil land.[25]

The Kural has influenced scholars and leaders across the ethical, social, political, economic, religious, philosophical, and spiritual spheres over its history.[26] These include Ilango Adigal, Kambar, Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Schweitzer, Ramalinga Swamigal, V. O. Chidambaram Pillai, Karl Graul, George Uglow Pope, Alexander Piatigorsky, and Yu Hsi. The work remains the most translated, the most cited, and the most citable of Tamil literary works.[27] The text has been translated into at least 57 Indian and non-Indian languages, making it one of the most translated ancient works. Ever since it came to print for the first time in 1812, the Kural text has never been out of print.[28] The Kural is considered a masterpiece and one of the most important texts of the Tamil literature.[29] Its author is venerated for his selection of virtues found in the known literature and presenting them in a manner that is considered common and acceptable to all.[30] The Tamil people and the government of Tamil Nadu have long celebrated and upheld the text with reverence.[17]

## Contents

* 1 Etymology and nomenclature
* 2 Date
* 3 Author
* 4 Contents
* 4.1 Structure
* 4.2 Substance
* 4.3 Similes and pseudo-contradictions
* 5 Commentaries and translations
* 5.1 Commentaries
* 5.2 Translations
* 5.3 Translational difficulties and distortions
* 6 Publication
* 7 Comparison with other ancient literature
* 7.1 World literature
* 8 Reception
* 8.1 Inscriptions and other historical records
* 8.2 In popular culture
* 8.3 Temples and memorials
* 9 Legacy
* 10 See also
* 11 Notes
* 12 Citations
* 13 References
* 13.1 Classical primary sources (Tamil)
* 13.2 Modern secondary sources
* 13.2.1 Books
* 13.2.2 Journals and Magazines
* 13.2.3 Newspapers
* 13.2.4 Online
* 14 Further reading
* 15 External links

## Etymology and nomenclature

Main article: History:Glossary of names for the Tirukkural

The term Tirukkuṟaḷ is a compound word made of two individual terms, tiru and kuṟaḷ. Tiru is an honorific Tamil term that corresponds to the Sanskrit term sri meaning "holy, sacred, excellent, honorable, and beautiful."[31] The term tiru has as many as 19 different meanings in Tamil.[32] Kuṟaḷ means something that is "short, concise, and abridged."[2] Etymologically, kuṟaḷ is the shortened form of kuṟaḷ pāttu, which is derived from kuruvenpāttu, one of the two Tamil poetic forms explained by the Tolkappiyam, the other one being neduvenpāttu.[33] According to Miron Winslow, kuṟaḷ 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."[34] Thus, Tirukkuṟaḷ literally comes to mean "sacred couplets."[2]

The work is highly cherished in the Tamil culture, as reflected by its twelve traditional titles: Tirukkuṟaḷ (the sacred kural), Uttaravedam (the ultimate Veda), Tiruvalluvar (eponymous with the author), Poyyamoli (the falseless word), Vayurai valttu (truthful praise), Teyvanul (the divine book), Potumarai (the common Veda), Valluva Maalai (garland made by the author), Tamil Manunool (Tamil ethical treatise), Tiruvalluva Payan (fruit of the author), Muppal (the three-fold path), and Tamilmarai (the Tamil Veda).[8][35] The work is traditionally grouped under the Eighteen Lesser Texts series of the late Sangam works, known in Tamil as Patiṉeṇkīḻkaṇakku.[33]

## Date

Main article: History: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.[7] According to Kamil Zvelebil, a Czech scholar of Tamil literature, these early dates such as 300 BCE to 1 BCE are unacceptable and not supported by evidence within the text. The diction and grammar of the Kural, and Valluvar's indebtedness to some earlier Sanskrit sources, suggest that he lived after the "early Tamil bardic poets," but before Tamil bhakti poets era.[8][36]

In 1959, S. Vaiyapuri Pillai assigned the work to around or after the 6th century CE. His proposal is based on the evidence that the Kural text contains a large proportion of Sanskrit loan words, shows awareness and indebtedness to some Sanskrit texts best dated to the first half of the 1st millennium CE, and the grammatical innovations in the language of the Kural literature.[36][b] Pillai published a list of 137 Sanskrit loan words in the Kural text.[37] Later scholars such as Thomas Burrow and Murray Barnson Emeneau show that 35 of these are of Dravidian origin and not Sanskrit loan words. Zvelebil states that an additional few have uncertain etymology and that future studies may prove those to be Dravidian.[37] The 102 remaining loan words from Sanskrit are "not negligible", and some of the teachings in the Kural text, according to Zvelebil, are "undoubtedly" based on the then extant Sanskrit works such as the Arthashastra and Manusmriti (also called the Manavadharmasastra).[37]

In his treatise of Tamil literary history published in 1974, Zvelebil states that the Kural text does not belong to the Sangam period and dates it to somewhere between 450 and 500 CE.[7] His estimate is based on the language of the text, its allusions to the earlier works, and its borrowing from some Sanskrit treatises.[8] 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 with these older texts.[38] 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 the verses in the Kural text are "undoubtedly" translations of the verses of earlier Indian texts.[39]

In the 19th century and the early 20th century, European writers and missionaries variously dated the text and its author to between 400 and 1000 CE.[40] According to Blackburn, the "current scholarly consensus" dates the text and the author to approximately 500 CE.[40]

In 1921, in the face of incessant debate on the precise date, the Tamil Nadu government officially declared 31 BCE as the year of Valluvar at a conference presided over by Maraimalai Adigal.[7][41][42][43][44] On 18 January 1935, the Valluvar Year was added to the calendar.[45][c]

## Author

Main article: Biography:Thiruvalluvar

"The book without a name by an author without a name."

—E. S. Ariel, 1848[46]

The Kural text was authored by Thiruvalluvar (lit. Saint Valluvar).[3] He is known by various other names including Poyyil Pulavar, Mudharpavalar, Deivappulavar, Nayanar, Devar, Nanmukanar, Mathanubangi, Sennabbodhakar, and Perunavalar.[47][48] There is negligible authentic information available about Valluvar's life.[49] For all practical purposes, neither his actual name nor the original title of his work can be determined with certainty.[50] The Kural text itself does not name its author.[51] The name Thiruvalluvar was first mentioned in the later era Shaivite Hindu text known as the Tiruvalluva Maalai, also of unclear date.[3] However, the Tiruvalluva Maalai does not mention anything about Valluvar's birth, family, caste or background. No other authentic pre-colonial texts have been found to support any legends about the life of Valluvar. Starting around early 19th century, numerous inconsistent legends on Valluvar in various Indian languages and English were published.[52]

The statue of Valluvar, the author of the Kural text, on an islet in Kanyakumari facing the Indian coastline

Various claims have been made regarding Valluvar's family background and occupation in the colonial era literature, all inferred from selective sections of his text or hagiographies published since the colonial era started in Tamil Nadu.[53] One traditional version claims that he was a Paraiyar weaver.[54] Another theory is that he must have been from the agricultural caste of Vellalars because he extols agriculture in his work.[8] Another states he was an outcaste, born to a Pariah woman and a Brahmin father.[8][53][55] Mu Raghava Iyengar speculated that "valluva" in his name is a variation of "vallabha", the designation of a royal officer.[8] S. Vaiyapuri Pillai derived his name from "valluvan" (a Paraiyar caste of royal drummers) and theorized that he was "the chief of the proclaiming boys analogous to a trumpet-major of an army".[8][56] The traditional biographies not only are inconsistent, but also contain incredulous claims about the author of the Kural text. Along with various versions of his birth circumstances, many state he went to a mountain and met the legendary Agastya and other sages.[57] There are also accounts claiming that, during his return journey, Valluvar sat under a tree whose shadow sat still over him and did not move the entire day, he killed a demon, and many more.[57] Scholars consider these and all associated aspects of these hagiographic stories to be fiction and ahistorical, a feature common to "international and Indian folklore". The alleged low birth, high birth and being a pariah in the traditional accounts are also doubtful.[58] Traditionally, Valluvar is believed to have married to Vasuki[59] and had a friend and a disciple named Elelasingan.[60][61]

In a manner similar to speculations of the author's biography, there has been much speculation about his religion with no historical evidence. In determining Valluvar's religion, the crucial test to be applied according to M. S. Purnalingam Pillai is to analyze what religious philosophy he has not condemned,[62] adding that Valluvar has "not said a word against" the Saiva Siddhanta principles.[62] The Kural text is aphoristic and non-denominational in nature and can be selectively interpreted in many ways. This has led almost every major religious group in India, including Christianity during the Colonial era, to claim the work and its author as one of their own.[8] The 19th-century Christian missionary George Uglow Pope, for example, claimed that Valluvar must have lived in the 9th century CE, come in contact with Christian teachers such as Pantaenus of Alexandria, imbibed Christian ideas and peculiarities of Alexandrian teachers and then wrote the "wonderful Kurral" with an "echo of the 'Sermon of the Mount'."[50] This theory, however, is ahistorical and discredited.[63] According to Zvelebil, the ethics and ideas in Valluvar's work are not Christian ethics.[17][d] Albert Schweitzer hints that "the dating of the Kural has suffered, along with so many other literary and historical dates, philosophies and mythologies of India, a severe mauling at the hands of the Christian Missionaries, anxious to post-date all irrefutable examples of religious maturity to the Christian era."[64]

Valluvar is thought to have belonged to either Jainism or Hinduism.[17][24][65][66][67][68] This can be observed in his treatment of the concept of ahimsa or non-violence, which is the principal concept of both the religions.[a] In the 1819 translation, Francis Whyte Ellis mentions that the Tamil community debates whether Valluvar was a Jain or Hindu.[69] According to Zvelebil, Valluvar's treatment of the chapters on moral vegetarianism and non-killing reflects the Jain precepts.[17][a] Certain epithets for God and ascetic values found in the text are found in Jainism, states Zvelebil. He theorizes that Valluvar was probably "a learned Jain with eclectic leanings", who was well acquainted with the earlier Tamil literature and also had knowledge of the Sanskrit texts.[49] According to A. Chakravarthy Nainar, the Jaina tradition associates the work with Kunda Kunda Acharya, also known as Elachariyar in the Tamil region, the chief of the Southern Pataliputra Dravidian Sanghaat, who lived around the latter half of the first century BCE and the former half of the first century CE.[70][71] Nevertheless, early Digambara or Śvetāmbara Jaina texts do not mention Valluvar or the Kural text. The first claim of Valluvar as an authority appears in a 16th-century Jain text.[72]

"It's the author's innate nature to select the best virtues
found in all the known literature and present them
in a manner that is acceptable to all."

—Parimelalhagar about Valluvar, 13th century CE[73]

Valluvar's writings, according to scholars, also suggest that he might have belonged to Hinduism. Hindu teachers have mapped his teachings in the Kural literature to the teachings found in Hindu texts.[66][67] The three parts that the Kural is divided into, namely, aṟam (virtue), poruḷ (wealth) and inbam (love), aiming at attaining veedu (ultimate salvation), follow, respectively, the four foundations of Hinduism, namely, dharma, artha, kama and moksha.[2][68] While the text extols the virtue of non-violence, it also dedicates many of 700 poruḷ couplets to various aspects of statecraft and warfare in a manner similar to the Hindu text Arthasastra.[65] For example, according to the text, an army has a duty to kill in battle, and a king must execute criminals for justice.[74][e] Valluvar's 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 the author.[75][76] P. R. Natarajan lists at least 24 different usage of Hindu origin in 29 different couplets across the Kural text.[76] According to Purnalingam Pillai, who is known for his critique of Brahminism, a rational analysis of the Kural text suggests that Valluvar was a Hindu, and not a Jain.[77] Matthieu Ricard believes Valluvar belonged to the Shaivite tradition of South India.[78] According to Thomas Manninezhath – a theology scholar who grew up in South India, the Tirukkuṟaḷ is believed by the natives to reflect Advaita Vedanta philosophy and teaches an "Advaitic way of life".[79] Similarly, J. J. Glazov, a Tamil literature scholar and the translator of the Kural text into the Russian language, sees "Thiruvalluvar as a Hindu by faith", according to a review by Kamil Zvelebil.[80]

Notwithstanding these debates, Valluvar is praised by scholars for his innate nature to select the virtues found in all the known works and present them in a manner that is considered common and acceptable to everyone.[30] The author is remembered and cherished for his universal secular values,[81] and his treatise has been called Ulaga Podhu Marai (the universal scripture).[82][83][84][85]

## Contents

The Kural is structured into 133 chapters, each containing 10 couplets (or kurals), for a total of 1,330 couplets.[86][f] All the couplets are in kural venba metre, and all the 133 chapters have an ethical theme and are grouped into three parts, or "books":[86][87]

Tirukkuṟaḷ

Aṟam (28.6%)

Poruḷ (52.6%)

Inbam (18.8%)

* Book I – Aṟam (அறம்): Book of Virtue (Dharma), dealing with moral values of an individual[86] and essentials of yoga philosophy[87] (Chapters 1–38)
* Book II – Poruḷ (பொருள்): Book of Polity (Artha), dealing with socio-economic values,[86] polity, society and administration[87] (Chapters 39–108)
* Book III – Inbam (இன்பம்): Book of Love (Kama), dealing with psychological values[86] and love[87] (Chapters 109–133)

"Virtue will confer heaven and wealth; what greater source of happiness can man possess?"

(Kural 31; Drew, 1840).[88]

The book on aṟam (virtue) contains 380 verses, that of poruḷ (wealth) has 700 and that of inbam or kāmam (love) has 250. 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 Tirukkuṟaḷ is a cir formed by combining the two words tiru and kuṟaḷ.[86] The Kural text has a total of 9310 cirs made of 12,000 Tamil words, of which about 50 words are from Sanskrit and the remaining are Tamil original words.[89] A manual count has shown that there are in total 42,194 letters in the entire work, with the shortest ones (kurals 833 and 1304) containing 23 letters and the longest ones (kurals 957 and 1246) containing 39 letters each.[90] Among the 133 chapters, the fifth chapter is the longest with 339 letters and the 124th chapter is the shortest with 280 letters.[91]

Of the 1,330 couplets in the text, 40 couplets relate to god, rain, ascetics, and virtue; 340 on fundamental everyday virtues of an individual; 250 on royalty; 100 on ministers of state; 220 on essential requirements of administration; 130 on social morality, both positive and negative; and 250 on human love and passion.[24][92]

Along with the Bhagavad Gita, the Kural is one of the earliest systems of Indian epistemology and metaphysics.[93] The work largely reflects the first three of the four ancient Indian aims in life, known as purushaarthas, viz., virtue (dharma), wealth (artha) and love (kama).[2][6][68][94][95][96] The fourth aim, namely, salvation (moksha) has been omitted from being dealt with as the fourth book since it does not lend itself to didactic treatment,[97] but is implicit in the last five chapters of Book I.[98][g] The components of aṟam, poruḷ and inbam encompasses both the agam and puram genres of the Tamil literary tradition as explained in the Tolkappiyam.[99] According to Sharma, dharma (aṟam) refers to ethical values for the holistic pursuit of life, artha (poruḷ) refers to wealth obtained in ethical manner guided by dharma, and kāma (Inbam) refers to pleasure and fulfilment of one's desires, also guided by dharma.[100] The corresponding goals of poruḷ and inbam are desirable, yet both need to be regulated by aṟam, according to J. Arunadevi.[101] On the same lines, Amaladass concludes that the Kural expresses that dharma and artha should not be separated from one another.[102] According to Indian philosophical tradition, one must remain unattached to wealth and possessions, which can either be transcended or sought with detachment and awareness, and pleasure needs to be fulfilled consciously and without harming anyone.[100] The Indian tradition also holds that there exists an inherent tension between artha and kama.[100] Thus, wealth and pleasure must be pursued with an "action with renunciation" (the doctrine of Nishkama Karma), that is, one must act without craving in order to resolve this tension.[100][103] Accordingly, Valluvar insists that all worldly attachments be renounced gradually and in right time.[103][h] The last five chapters of Book I are based on this doctrine.[99]

Outline of the Kural

The content of Tirukkuṟaḷ, according to Zvelebil:[20]

Book I—Book of Virtue (38 chapters)

* Chapter 1. In Praise of God (கடவுள் வாழ்த்து kaṭavuḷ vāḻttu): Couplets 1–10
* Chapter 2. The Excellence of Rain (வான் சிறப்பு vāṉ ciṟappu): 11–20
* Chapter 3. The Greatness of Those Who Have Renounced (நீத்தார் பெருமை nīttār perumai): 21–30
* Chapter 4. Assertion of the strength of Virtue (அறன் வலியுறுத்தல் aṟaṉ valiyuṟuttal): 31–40
* Chapter 5. Domestic Life (இல்வாழ்க்கை ilvāḻkkai): 41–50
* Chapter 6. The Goodness of Spouse (வாழ்க்கைத்துணை நலம் vāḻkkaittuṇai nalam): 51–60
* Chapter 7. The Obtaining of Sons (புதல்வரைப் பெறுதல் putalvaraip peṟutal): 61–70
* Chapter 8. The Possession of Affection (அன்புடைமை aṉpuṭaimai): 71–80
* Chapter 9. Hospitality (விருந்தோம்பல் viruntōmpal): 81–90
* Chapter 10. Kindly Speech (இனியவை கூறல் iṉiyavai kūṟal): 91–100
* Chapter 11. Gratitude (செய்ந்நன்றி அறிதல் ceynnaṉṟi aṟital): 101–110
* Chapter 12. Impartiality (நடுவு நிலைமை naṭuvu nilaimai): 111–120
* Chapter 13. Self-control (அடக்கமுடைமை aṭakkamuṭaimai): 121–130
* Chapter 14. Decorous Conduct (ஒழுக்கமுடைமை oḻukkamuṭaimai): 131–140
* Chapter 15. Not Coveting Another's Wife (பிறனில் விழையாமை piṟaṉil viḻaiyāmai): 141–150
* Chapter 16. Forbearance (பொறையுடைமை poṟaiyuṭaimai): 151–160
* Chapter 17. Absence of Envy (அழுக்காறாமை aḻukkāṟāmai): 161–170
* Chapter 18. Not Coveting (வெஃகாமை veḵkāmai): 171–180
* Chapter 19. Not Speaking Evil of the Absent (புறங்கூறாமை puṟaṅkūṟāmai): 181–190
* Chapter 20. Not Speaking Senseless Words (பயனில சொல்லாமை payaṉila collāmai): 191–200
* Chapter 21. Dread of Evil Deeds (தீவினையச்சம் tīviṉaiyaccam): 201–210
* Chapter 22. Recognition of Duty (ஒப்புரவறிதல் oppuravaṟital): 211–220
* Chapter 23. Giving (ஈகை īkai): 221–230
* Chapter 24. Fame (புகழ் pukaḻ): 231–240
* Chapter 25. Possession of Benevolence (அருளுடைமை aruḷuṭaimai): 241–250
* Chapter 26. Abstinence from Flesh (Vegetarianism) (புலான் மறுத்தல் pulāṉmaṟuttal): 251–260
* Chapter 27. Penance (தவம் tavam): 261–270
* Chapter 28. Inconsistent Conduct (கூடாவொழுக்கம் kūṭāvoḻukkam): 271–280
* Chapter 29. Absence of Fraud (கள்ளாமை kaḷḷāmai): 281–290
* Chapter 30. Truthfulness (வாய்மை vāymai): 291–300
* Chapter 31. Refraining from Anger (வெகுளாமை vekuḷāmai): 301–310
* Chapter 32. Inflicting No Pain (Ahimsa) (இன்னா செய்யாமை iṉṉāceyyāmai): 311–320
* Chapter 33. Not Killing (கொல்லாமை kollāmai): 321–330
* Chapter 34. Instability of Earthly Things (நிலையாமை nilaiyāmai): 331–340
* Chapter 35. Renunciation (துறவு tuṟavu): 341–350
* Chapter 36. Perception of the Truth (மெய்யுணர்தல் meyyuṇartal): 351–360
* Chapter 37. Rooting Out Desire (அவாவறுத்தல் avāvaṟuttal): 361–370
* Chapter 38. Past Deeds (ஊழ் ūḻ = karma): 371–380

Book II—Book of Polity (70 chapters)

* Chapter 39. The Greatness of a King (இறைமாட்சி iṟaimāṭci): 381–390
* Chapter 40. Learning (கல்வி kalvi): 391–400
* Chapter 41. Ignorance (கல்லாமை kallāmai): 401–410
* Chapter 42. Learning through Listening (கேள்வி kēḷvi): 411–420
* Chapter 43. Possession of Knowledge (அறிவுடைமை aṟivuṭaimai): 421–430
* Chapter 44. The Correction of Faults (குற்றங்கடிதல் kuṟṟaṅkaṭital): 431–440
* Chapter 45. Seeking the Help of the Great (பெரியாரைத் துணைக்கோடல் periyārait tuṇaikkōṭal): 441–450
* Chapter 46. Avoiding Mean Associations (சிற்றினஞ்சேராமை ciṟṟiṉañcērāmai): 451–460
* Chapter 47. Acting after Right Consideration (தெரிந்து செயல்வகை terintuceyalvakai): 461–470
* Chapter 48. Recognition of Power (வலியறிதல் valiyaṟital): 471–480
* Chapter 49. Recognition of Opportunity (காலமறிதல் kālamaṟital): 481–490
* Chapter 50. Recognition of Place (இடனறிதல் iṭaṉaṟital): 491–500
* Chapter 51. Selection and Confidence (தெரிந்து தெளிதல் terintuteḷital): 501–510
* Chapter 52. Selection and Employment (தெரிந்து வினையாடல் terintuviṉaiyāṭal): 511–520
* Chapter 53. Cherishing One's Kin (சுற்றந்தழால் cuṟṟantaḻāl): 521–530
* Chapter 54. Unforgetfulness (பொச்சாவாமை poccāvāmai): 531–540
* Chapter 55. The Right Sceptre (செங்கோன்மை ceṅkōṉmai): 541–550
* Chapter 56. The Cruel Sceptre (கொடுங்கோன்மை koṭuṅkōṉmai): 551–560
* Chapter 57. Absence of Tyranny (வெருவந்த செய்யாமை veruvantaceyyāmai): 561–570
* Chapter 58. Benignity (கண்ணோட்டம் kaṇṇōṭṭam): 571–580
* Chapter 59. Spies (ஒற்றாடல் oṟṟāṭal): 581–590
* Chapter 60. Energy (ஊக்கமுடைமை ūkkamuṭaimai): 591–600
* Chapter 61. Unsluggishness (மடியின்மை maṭiyiṉmai): 601–610
* Chapter 62. Manly Effort (ஆள்வினையுடைமை āḷviṉaiyuṭaimai): 611–620
* Chapter 63. Not Despairing in Trouble (இடுக்கண் அழியாமை iṭukkaṇ aḻiyāmai): 621–630
* Chapter 64. Ministry (அமைச்சு amaiccu): 631–640
* Chapter 65. Power in Speech (சொல்வன்மை colvaṉmai): 641–650
* Chapter 66. Purity in Action (வினைத்தூய்மை viṉaittūymai): 651–660
* Chapter 67. Firmness in Deeds (வினைத்திட்பம் viṉaittiṭpam): 661–670
* Chapter 68. Method of Action (வினை செயல்வகை viṉaiceyalvakai): 671–680
* Chapter 69. The Envoy (தூது tūtu): 681–690
* Chapter 70. Conduct in the Presence of King (மன்னரைச் சேர்ந்தொழுதல் maṉṉaraic cērntoḻutal): 691–700
* Chapter 71. Knowledge of Signs (குறிப்பறிதல் kuṟippaṟital): 701–710
* Chapter 72. Knowledge in the Council Chamber (அவையறிதல் avaiyaṟital): 711–720
* Chapter 73. Not to Fear the Council (அவையஞ்சாமை avaiyañcāmai): 721–730
* Chapter 74. The Land (நாடு nāṭu): 731–740
* Chapter 75. The Fort (அரண் araṇ): 741–750
* Chapter 76. Ways of Accumulating Wealth (பொருள் செயல்வகை poruḷceyalvakai): 751–760
* Chapter 77. Greatness of the Army (படைமாட்சி paṭaimāṭci): 761–770
* Chapter 78. Military Spirit (படைச்செருக்கு paṭaiccerukku): 771–780
* Chapter 79. Friendship (நட்பு naṭpu): 781–790
* Chapter 80. Scrutiny of Friendships (நட்பாராய்தல் naṭpārāytal): 791–800
* Chapter 81. Familiarity (பழைமை paḻaimai): 801–810
* Chapter 82. Evil Friendship (தீ நட்பு tī naṭpu): 811–820
* Chapter 83. Faithless Friendship (கூடா நட்பு kūṭānaṭpu): 821–830
* Chapter 84. Folly (பேதைமை pētaimai): 831–840
* Chapter 85. Ignorance (புல்லறிவாண்மை pullaṟivāṇmai): 841–850
* Chapter 86. Hostility (இகல் ikal): 851–860
* Chapter 87. The Excellence of Hate (பகை மாட்சி pakaimāṭci): 861–870
* Chapter 88. Skill in the Conduct of Quarrels (பகைத்திறந்தெரிதல் pakaittiṟanterital): 871–880
* Chapter 89. Secret Enmity (உட்பகை uṭpakai): 881–890
* Chapter 90. Not Offending the Great (பெரியாரைப் பிழையாமை periyāraip piḻaiyāmai): 891–900
* Chapter 91. Being Led by Women (பெண்வழிச் சேறல் peṇvaḻiccēṟal): 901–910
* Chapter 92. Wanton Women (வரைவின் மகளிர் varaiviṉmakaḷir): 911–920
* Chapter 93. Abstinence from Liquor (கள்ளுண்ணாமை kaḷḷuṇṇāmai): 921–930
* Chapter 94. Gambling (சூது cūtu): 931–940
* Chapter 95. Medicine (மருந்து maruntu): 941–950
* Chapter 96. Nobility (குடிமை kuṭimai): 951–960
* Chapter 97. Honour (மானம் māṉam): 961–970
* Chapter 98. Greatness (பெருமைperumai): 971–980
* Chapter 99. Perfect Excellence (சான்றாண்மை cāṉṟāṇmai): 981–990
* Chapter 100. Courtesy (பண்புடைமை paṇpuṭaimai): 991–1000
* Chapter 101. Useless Wealth (நன்றியில் செல்வம் naṉṟiyilcelvam): 1001–1010
* Chapter 102. Shame (நாணுடைமை nāṇuṭaimai): 1011–1020
* Chapter 103. On Raising the Family (குடிசெயல்வகை kuṭiceyalvakai): 1021–1030
* Chapter 104. Agriculture (உழவு uḻavu): 1031–1040
* Chapter 105. Poverty (நல்குரவு nalkuravu): 1041–1050
* Chapter 106. Mendicancy (இரவுiravu): 1051–1060
* Chapter 107. The Dread of Mendicancy (இரவச்சம் iravaccam): 1061–1070
* Chapter 108. Vileness (கயமை kayamai): 1071–1080

Book III—Book of Love (25 chapters)

* Chapter 109. Mental Disturbance Caused by the Lady's Beauty (தகையணங்குறுத்தல் takaiyaṇaṅkuṟuttal): 1081–1090
* Chapter 110. Recognizing the Signs (குறிப்பறிதல்kuṟippaṟital): 1091–1100
* Chapter 111. Rejoicing in the Sexual Union (புணர்ச்சி மகிழ்தல் puṇarccimakiḻtal): 1101–1110
* Chapter 112. Praising Her Beauty (நலம் புனைந்துரைத்தல் nalampuṉainturaittal): 1111–1120
* Chapter 113. Declaration of Love's Excellence (காதற் சிறப்புரைத்தல் kātaṟciṟappuraittal): 1121–1130
* Chapter 114. The Abandonment of Reserve (நாணுத் துறவுரைத்தல் nāṇuttuṟavuraittal): 1131–1140
* Chapter 115. Rumour (அலரறிவுறுத்தல் alaraṟivuṟuttal): 1141–1150
* Chapter 116. Separation is Unendurable (பிரிவாற்றாமை pirivāṟṟāmai): 1151–1160
* Chapter 117. Complaining of Absence (படர் மெலிந்திரங்கல்paṭarmelintiraṅkal): 1161–1170
* Chapter 118. Eyes Concerned with Grief (கண்விதுப்பழிதல் kaṇvituppaḻital): 1171–1180
* Chapter 119. Grief's Pallor (பசப்பறு பருவரல் pacappaṟuparuvaral): 1181–1190
* Chapter 120. The Solitary Anguish (தனிப்படர் மிகுதி taṉippaṭarmikuti): 1191–1200
* Chapter 121. Sad Memories (நினைந்தவர் புலம்பல் niṉaintavarpulampal): 1201–1210
* Chapter 122. Visions of Night (கனவுநிலையுரைத்தல் kaṉavunilaiyuraittal): 1211–1220
* Chapter 123. Lamentations at Evening (பொழுதுகண்டிரங்கல் poḻutukaṇṭiraṅkal): 1221–1230
* Chapter 124. Wasting Away (உறுப்பு நலனழிதல் uṟuppunalaṉaḻital): 1231–1240
* Chapter 125. Soliloquies (நெஞ்சொடு கிளத்தல் neñcoṭukiḷattal): 1241–1250
* Chapter 126. Reserve Destroyed (நிறையழிதல் niṟaiyaḻital): 1251–1260
* Chapter 127. Longing for the Return (அவர்வயின் விதும்பல் avarvayiṉvitumpal): 1261–1270
* Chapter 128. Reading of the Signs (குறிப்பறிவுறுத்தல் kuṟippaṟivuṟuttal): 1271–1280
* Chapter 129. Desire for Reunion (புணர்ச்சி விதும்பல் puṇarccivitumpal): 1281–1290
* Chapter 130. Arguing with One's Heart (நெஞ்சொடு புலத்தல் neñcoṭupulattal): 1291–1300
* Chapter 131. Lover's Quarrel (புலவி pulavi): 1301–1310
* Chapter 132. Petty Jealousies (புலவி நுணுக்கம் pulavi nuṇukkam): 1311–1320
* Chapter 133. Pleasures of Temporary Variance (ஊடலுவகை ūṭaluvakai): 1321–1330

### Structure

The Kural text is the work of a single author because it has a consistent "language, formal structure and content-structure", states Zvelebil.[104] Neither is the Kural an anthology nor is there any later additions to the text.[104] The division into three parts (muppāl) is probably the author's work. However, the subdivisions beyond these three, known as iyals, as found in some surviving manuscripts and commentaries, are likely later additions because there are variations between these subtitles found in manuscripts and those in historical commentaries.[105][106]

Statue of Valluvar at an animal sanctuary in Tiruvallur. The plaque describes the Kural's teachings on ahimsa and non-killing, summing them up with the definition of veganism.

Starting from the medieval era, commentators have multifariously divided the Kural text into different iyal sub-divisions, grouping the Kural chapters diversely under them.[107] The idea of subdividing the Tirukkural into iyal sub-divisions was first put forth by a Tiruvalluva Maalai verse attributed to Nanpalur Sirumedhaviyar.[108][109] The medieval commentators have variously grouped the chapters of Book I into three and four iyals, grouping the original chapters diversely under these divisions and thus changing the order of the chapters widely;[106][110][111] while Parimelalhagar divided it into three iyals, others divided it into four,[112] with some 20th-century commentators going up to six.[110] Book II has been variously subdivided between three and six iyals.[110][113][114] The chapters of Book III have been variously grouped between two and five iyals.[110][112][115] For example, the following subdivisions or iyals are found in Parimelalhagar's version, which greatly varies from that of Manakkudavar:[116]

* Chapters 1–4: Introduction
* Chapters 5–24: Domestic virtue
* Chapters 25–38: Ascetic virtue
* Chapters 39–63: Royalty, the qualities of the leader of men
* Chapters 64–73: The subject and the ruler
* Chapters 74–96: Essential parts of state, shrewdness in public life
* Chapters 97–108: Reaching perfection in social life
* Chapters 109–115: Concealed love
* Chapters 116–133: Wedded love

Modern scholars and publishers chiefly follow Parimelalhagar's model for couplet numbering, chapter ordering, and grouping the chapters into iyals.[117]

Such subdivisions are likely later additions, but the couplets themselves have been preserved in the original form and there is no evidence of later revisions or insertions into the couplets.[104][116] Thus, in spite of these later subdivisions by the medieval commentators, both the domestic and ascetic virtues in Book I are addressed to the householder or commoner.[118] As Yu Hsi puts it, "Valluvar speaks to the duties of the commoner acting in different capacities as son, father, husband, friend, citizen, and so forth."[119] According to A. Gopalakrishnan, ascetic virtues in the Kural does not mean renunciation of household life or pursuing of the conventional ascetic life, but only refers to giving up immoderate desires and having self-control that is expected of every individual.[118] According to Joanne Punzo Waghorne, professor of religion and South Asian studies at the Syracuse University, the Kural is "a homily on righteous living for the householder."[59]

Like the three-part division, and unlike the iyal subdivisions, the grouping of the couplets into chapters is the author's.[120] Every topic that Valluvar handles in his work are presented in ten couplets forming a chapter, and the chapter is usually named using a keyword found in the couplets in it.[120] Exceptions to this convention are found in all the three books of the Kural text as in Chapter 1 in the Book of Aram, Chapter 78 in the Book of Porul, and Chapter 117 in the Book of Inbam, where the words used in title of the chapters are not found anywhere in the chapter's couplets.[121] Here again, the titles of all the chapters of the Kural text are given by Valluvar himself.[121] According to S. N. Kandasamy, the naming of the first chapter of the Kural text is in accord with the conventions used in the Tolkappiyam.[122]

According to Zvelebil, the content of the Kural text is "undoubtedly patterned" and "very carefully structured."[123] There are no structural gaps in the text, with every couplet indispensable for the structured whole.[105] There are two distinct meanings for every couplet, namely, a structural one and a proverbial one.[105] In their isolated form, that is, when removed from the context of the 10-couplet chapter, the couplets lose their structural meaning but retain the "wise saying, moral maxim" sense.[105] In isolation, a couplet is "a perfect form, possessing, in varying degree, the prosodic and rhetoric qualities of gnomic poetry."[105] Within the chapter-structure, the couplets acquire their structural meaning and reveal the more complete teaching of the author.[105] This, Zvelebil states, is the higher pattern in the Kural text, and finally, in relation to the entire work, they acquire perfection in the totality of their structure.[105] In terms of structural flow, the text journeys the reader from "the imperfect, incomplete" state of man implicit in the early chapters to the "physically, morally, intellectually and emotionally perfect" state of man living as a husband and citizen, states Zvelebil.[124] In poetic terms, it fuses verse and aphoristic form in diction in a "pithy, vigorous, forceful and terse" manner. Zvelebil calls it an ethics text that expounds a universal, moral and practical approach to life. According to Mahadevan, Valluvar is more considerate about the substance than the linguistic appeal of his writing throughout the work.[125]

### Substance

The Kural text is marked by pragmatic idealism,[6][126] focused on "man in the totality of his relationships".[127] Despite being a classic, the work has little scope for any poetic excellence.[128] According to Zvelebil, the text does not feature "true and great poetry" throughout the work, except, notably, in the third book, which deals with love and pleasure.[129] This emphasis on substance rather than poetry, according to scholars, suggests that Valluvar's main aim was not to produce a work of art, but rather an instructive text focused on wisdom, justice, and ethics.[129]

The Kural text begins with an invocation of God and then praises the rain for being the vitalizer of all life forms on earth.[130][131] It proceeds to describe the qualities of a righteous person, before concluding the introduction by emphasizing the value of aṟam or virtue.[130][132] It continues to treat aṟam in every action in life, supplementing it with a chapter on predestination.[97] 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 the author asserts as the most important economic activity later in Book II of the Kural text.[130][133]

"The greatest virtue of all is non-killing; truthfulness cometh only next."

(Kural 323; Aiyar, 1916).[134]

The three books of the Kural base aṟam or dharma (virtue) as their cornerstone,[135][136] resulting in the work being collectively referred to simply as Aṟam.[120][137][138][139] Valluvar holds that aṟam is common for all, irrespective of whether the person is a bearer of palanquin or the rider in it.[140][141] According to Albert Schweitzer, the idea that good must be done for its own sake comes from various couplets across the Kural text.[142] In his 1999 work, Japanese Indologist Takanobu Takahashi noted that Valluvar dealt with virtues in terms of good rather than in terms of caste-based duties and when he discussed politics he addressed simply a man rather than a king.[143] The text is a comprehensive pragmatic work that presents philosophy in the first part, political science in the second and poetics in the third.[144][145] Of the three books of the Kural literature, the second one on politics and kingdom (poruḷ) is about twice the size of the first, and three times that of the third.[146] In the 700 couplets on poruḷ (53 percent of the text), Valluvar mostly discusses statecraft and warfare.[147] While other Sangam texts approved of, and even glorified,[148] the four immoral deeds of meat-eating, alcohol consumption, polygamy, and prostitution, the Kural literature strongly condemns these as crimes,[149][150] reportedly for the first time in the history of the Tamil land.[25][151][152] In addition to these, the Kural also strongly proscribes gambling.[153]

The Kural is based on the doctrine of ahimsa.[10]Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". According to Schweitzer, the Kural "stands for the commandment not to kill and not to damage."Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Accordingly, Valluvar dictates the householder to renounce the eating of meat "in order that he may become a man of grace."Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". While the Bible and other Abrahamic texts condemns only the taking away of human life, the Kural is cited for unequivocally and exclusively condemning the "literal taking away of life,"Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". regardless of whether it is human or animal.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". The greatest of personal virtues according to the Kural text is non-killing, followed by veracity,Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". and the two greatest sins that Valluvar feels very strongly are ingratitude and meat-eating.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".[i] According to J. M. Nallaswamy Pillai, the Kural differs from every other work on morality in that it follows ethics, surprisingly a divine one, even in its Book of Love.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". 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.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". In a social and political context, the Kural text glorifies valour and victory during war and recommends a death sentence for the wicked only as a means of justice.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

According to Kaushik Roy, the Kural text in substance is a classic on realism and pragmatism, and it is not a mystic, purely philosophical document.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Valluvar presents his theory of state using six elements: army (patai), subjects (kuti), treasure (kul), ministers (amaiccu), allies (natpu), and forts (aran).Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Valluvar also recommends forts and other infrastructure, supplies and food storage in preparation for siege.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". A king and his army must always be ready for war, and should launch a violent offensive, at the right place and right time, when the situation so demands and particularly against morally weak and corrupt kingdoms. A good and strong kingdom must be protected with forts made of thick, high and impenetrable walls. The text recommends a hierarchical military organization staffed with fearless soldiers who are willing to die in war,Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". drawing from the Hindu concepts of non-mystic realism and readiness for war.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

"The sceptre of the king is the firm support of the Vedas of the Brahmin, and of all virtues therein described."

(Kural 543; John Lazarus 1885Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". & A. K. Ananthanathan 1994Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".).

The Kural text does not recommend democracy; rather it accepts a royalty with ministers bound to a code of ethics and a system of justice.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". The king in the text, states K. V. Nagarajan, is assigned the "role of producing, acquiring, conserving, and dispensing wealth".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". The king's duty is to provide a just rule, be impartial and have courage in protecting his subjects and in meting out justice and punishment. The text supports death penalty for the wicked in the book of poruḷ, but does so only after emphasizing non-killing as every individual's personal virtue in the book of aṟam.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". The Kural cautions against tyranny, appeasement and oppression, with the suggestion that such royal behavior causes natural disasters, depletes the state's wealth and ultimately results in the loss of power and prosperity.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". In the sphere of business, a study employing hermeneutics concludes that the Kural advocates a consciousness and spirit-centered approach to the subject of business ethics on the basis of eternal values and moral principles that should govern the conduct of business leaders.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

Valluvar remained a generalist rather than a specialist in any particular field.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". He never indulged in specifics but always stressed on the basic principles of morality.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". This can be seen across the Kural text: while Valluvar talks about worshiping God, he refrains from mentioning the way of worshiping; he refers to God as an "ultimate reality" without calling him by any name; he talks about land, village, country, kingdom, and king but never refers them by any name; though he mentions about the value of reading and reciting scriptures, he never names them; he talks about the values of charity without laying down the rules for it; though he repeatedly emphasizes about the importance of learning, he never says what is to be learnt; he recommends taxation in governance but does not suggest any proportion of collection.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

### Similes and pseudo-contradictions

Tamil Wisdom, by Edward Jewitt Robinson, 1873, with the traditional portrait of ValluvarLua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

Scholars claim that Valluvar seldom shows any concern as to what similes and superlatives he used earlier while writing later chapters, purposely allowing for some repetitions and apparent contradictions in ideas one can find in the Kural text.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Despite knowing its seemingly contradictory nature from a purist point of view, the author is said to employ this method to emphasise the importance of the given code of ethic.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Following are some of the instances where Valluvar is quoted as employing pseudo-contradictions to expound the virtues.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

* While in Chapter 93 Valluvar writes on the evils of intoxication,Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". in Chapter 109 he uses the same to show the sweetness of love by saying love is sweeter than wine.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".
* To the question "What is wealth of all wealth?" Valluvar points to two different things, namely, grace (kural 241) and hearing (kural 411).Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".
* 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).Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".
* Whereas he says that one can eject what is natural or inborn in him (kural 376),Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". he indicates that one can overcome the inherent natural flaws by getting rid of laziness (kural 609).Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".
* While in Chapter 7 he asserts that the greatest gain men can obtain is by their learned children (kural 61),Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". in Chapter 13 he says that it is that which is obtained by self-control (kural 122).Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

The ethical connections between these verses are widely elucidated ever since the medieval commentaries. For example, Parimelalhagar elucidates the ethical connections between couplets 380 and 620, 481 and 1028, 373 and 396, and 383 and 672 in his commentary.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

## Commentaries and translations

### Commentaries

Palm leaf manuscript of the Tirukkuṟaḷ

The Kural is one of the most reviewed of all works in Tamil literature, and almost every notable scholar of Tamil has written exegesis or commentaries (explanation in prose or verse), known in Tamil as urai, on it.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".[j] Some of the Tamil literature that was composed after the Kural quote or borrow its couplets in their own texts.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". According to Aravindan, these texts may be considered as the earliest commentaries to the Kural text.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

Dedicated commentaries on the Kural text began to appear about and after the 10th century CE. There were at least ten medieval commentaries of which only six have survived into the modern era. The ten medieval commentators include Manakkudavar, Dharumar, Dhamatthar, Nacchar, Paridhiyar, Thirumalaiyar, Mallar, Pari Perumal, Kaalingar, and Parimelalhagar, all of whom lived between the 10th and the 13th centuries CE. Of these, only the works of Manakkudavar, Paridhi, Kaalingar, Pari Perumal, and Parimelalhagar are available today. The works of Dharumar, Dhaamatthar, and Nacchar are only partially available. The commentaries by Thirumalaiyar and Mallar are lost completely. The best known among these are the commentaries by Parimelalhagar, Kaalingar, and Manakkudavar.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Among the ten medieval commentaries, scholars have found spelling, homophonic, and other minor textual variations in a total of 900 couplets, including 217 couplets in Book I, 487 couplets in Book II, and 196 couplets in Book III.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

"Valluvar is a cunning technician, who, by prodigious self-restraint and artistic vigilance, super-charges his words with meaning and achieves an incredible terseness and an irreducible density. His commentators have, therefore, to squeeze every word and persuade it to yield its last drop of meaning."

— S. Maharajan, 1979.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

The best known and influential historic commentary on the Kural text is the Parimelalhakiyar virutti. It was written by Parimelalhagar – a Vaishnava Brahmin, likely based in Kanchipuram, who is the last of the ten medieval commentators and who lived about or before 1272 CE.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Along with the Kural text, this commentary has been widely published and is in itself a Tamil classic.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Parimelalhagar's commentary has survived over the centuries in many folk and scholarly versions. A more scholarly version of this commentary was published by Krisnamachariyar in 1965.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". According to Norman Cutler, Parimelalhagar's commentary interprets and maneuvers the Kural text within his own context, grounded in the concepts and theological premises of Hinduism. His commentary closely follows the Kural's teachings, while reflecting both the cultural values and textual values of the 13th- and 14th-century Tamil Nadu. Valluvar's text can be interpreted and maneuvered in other ways, states Cutler.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

Besides the ten medieval commentaries, there are at least three more commentaries written by unknown medieval authors.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". One of them was published under the title "Palhaiya Urai" (meaning ancient commentary), while the second one was based on Paridhiyar's commentary.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". The third one was published in 1991 under the title "Jaina Urai" (meaning Jaina commentary) by Saraswathi Mahal Library in Thanjavur.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Following these medieval commentaries, there are at least 21 venpa commentaries to the Kural, including Somesar Mudumoli Venba, Murugesar Muduneri Venba, Sivasiva Venba, Irangesa Venba, Vadamalai Venba, Dhinakara Venba, and Jinendra Venba, all of which are considered commentaries in verse form.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". The 16th-century commentary by Thirumeni Rathna Kavirayar,Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". and the 19th-century commentaries by Ramanuja KavirayarLua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". and Thanigai SaravanaperumalaiyarLua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". are some of the well-known scholarly commentaries on the Kural text before the 20th century.

Several modern commentaries started appearing in the 19th and 20th centuries. Of these, the commentaries by Kaviraja Pandithar and U. V. Swaminatha Iyer are considered classic by modern scholars.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Some of the commentaries of the 20th century include those by K. Vadivelu Chettiar,Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Krishnampet K. Kuppusamy Mudaliar,Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Iyothee Thass, V. O. Chidambaram Pillai, Thiru Vi Ka, Bharathidasan, M. Varadarajan, Namakkal Kavignar, Thirukkuralar V. Munusamy, Devaneya Pavanar, M. Karunanithi, and Solomon Pappaiah, besides several hundred others. The commentary by M. Varadarajan entitled Tirukkural Thelivurai (lit. Lucid commentary of the Kural), first published in 1949, remains the most published modern commentary, with more than 200 editions by the same publisher.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

According to K. Mohanraj, as of 2013[update]Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24"., there were at least 497 Tamil language commentaries written by 382 scholars beginning with Manakkudavar from the Medieval era. Of these at least 277 scholars have written commentaries for the entire work.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

### Translations

1856 CE Latin translation of Tirukkuṟaḷ by Karl Graul, with English notes by William Germann. Graul also published the first German translation.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

The Kural has been the most frequently translated ancient Tamil text. By 1975, its translations in at least 20 major languages had been published:Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

* Indian languages: Sanskrit, Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, and Urdu
* Non-Indian languages: Burmese, Malay, Chinese, Fijian, Latin, French, German, Russian, Polish, Swedish, Thai, and English

The text was likely translated into Indian languages by Indian scholars over the centuries, but the palm leaf manuscripts of such translations have been rare. For example, S. R. Ranganathan, a librarian of University of Madras during the British rule, discovered a Malayalam translation copied in year 777 of the Malayalam calendar, a manuscript that Zvelebil dates to late 16th century.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

The text was translated into several European languages during the colonial era, particularly by the Christian missionaries.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". The first European language translation was made in Latin by Constantius Joseph Beschi and was published in 1730. However, he translated only the first two books, viz., virtue and wealth, leaving out the book on love because its erotic and sexual nature was deemed by him to be inappropriate for a Christian missionary. The first French translation was brought about by an unknown author by about 1767 that went unnoticed. The first available French version was by E. S. Ariel in 1848. Again, he did not translate the whole work but only parts of it. The first German translation was made by Karl Graul, who published it in 1856 both at London and Leipzig.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Graul additionally translated the work into Latin in 1856.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

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.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". E. J. Robinson's translations of part of the Kural into English were published in 1873 in his book The Tamil Wisdom and its 1885 expanded edition titled The Tales and Poems of South India, ultimately translating the first two books of the Kural text.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". W. H. Drew translated the first two books of the Kural text in prose in 1840 and 1852, respectively. It contained the original Tamil text of the Kural, Parimelalhagar's commentary, Ramanuja Kavirayar's amplification of the commentary and Drew's English prose translation. However, Drew translated only 630 couplets, and the remaining were translated by John Lazarus, a native missionary, providing the first complete translation in English made by two translators. Like Beschi, Drew did not translate the third book on love.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". The first complete English translation of the Kural by a single author was the one by the Christian missionary George Uglow Pope in 1886, which introduced the complete Kural to the western world.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

The translations of the Kural in Southeast Asian and East Asian languages were published in the 20th century. A few of these relied on re-translating the earlier English translations of the work.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

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.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". The work has also been translated into Vaagri Booli, the language of the Narikuravas, a tribal community in Tamil Nadu, by Kittu Sironmani.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". In October 2021, the Central Institute of Classical Tamil announced its translating the Kural text into 102 world languages.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

As of 2026, the Kural has been translated into 57 languages, with a total of 350 individual translations, of which 143 are in English.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

### Translational difficulties and distortions

The largest book of the Tirukkuṟaḷ on display

With a highly compressed prosodic form, the Kural text employs the intricately complex Kural venba metre, known for its eminent suitability to gnomic poetry.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". 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.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". 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."Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". After translating a good portion of the Kural text, Karl Graul stated, "No translation can convey any idea of its charming effect. It is truly an apple of gold in a net-work of silver."Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". 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.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

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 translations by the Christian missionaries since the colonial era are often criticized for misinterpreting the text in order to conform it to Christian principles and beliefs. The Latin translation by the Christian missionary Father Beschi, for instance, contains several such mistranslations. According to V. Ramasamy, "Beschi is purposely distorting the message of the original when he renders Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". as 'the sea of miserable life' and the phrase Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". 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."Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". In August 2022, the governor of Tamil Nadu, R. N. Ravi, criticized Anglican Christian missionary G. U. Pope for "translating with the colonial objective to 'trivialise' the spiritual wisdom of India," resulting in a "de-spiritualised version" of the Kural text.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

According to Norman Cutler, both in the past and in the contemporary era, the Kural has been reinterpreted and fit to reflect the textual values in the text as well as the cultural values of the author(s).Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". About 1300 CE, the Tamil scholar Parimelalhagar interpreted the text in Brahmanical premises and terms.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Just like Christian missionaries during the colonial era cast the work in their own Christian premises, phrases and concepts, some Dravidianists of the contemporary era reinterpret and cast the work to further their own goals and socio-political values. This has produced highly divergent interpretations of the original.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

## Publication

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

The Tirukkuṟaḷ remained largely unknown outside India for over a millennium. As was the practice across the ancient Indian subcontinent, in addition to palm-leaf manuscripts, the Kural literature 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.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". According to Sanjeevi, the first translation of the work appeared in Malayalam (Kerala) in 1595.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".[k]

The first paper print of the Tirukkuṟaḷ is traceable to 1812, credited to the efforts of Ñānapirakācar who used wooden blocks embossed from palm-leaf scripts to produce copies of the Tirukkuṟaḷ along with those of Nalatiyar.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". It was only in 1835 that Indians were permitted to establish printing press. The Kural was the first book to be published in Tamil,Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". followed by the Naladiyar.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". It is said that when Francis Whyte Ellis, a British civil servant in the Madras Presidency and a scholar of Tamil and Sanskrit who had established a Tamil sangam (academy) in Madras in 1825, asked Tamil enthusiasts to "bring to him ancient Tamil manuscripts for publication,"Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Kandappan, the butler of George Harrington, a European civil servant possibly in the Madurai district, and the grandfather of Iyothee Thass, handed in handwritten palm-leaf manuscripts of the Kural text as well as the Tiruvalluva Maalai and the Naladiyar, which he found between 1825 and 1831 in a pile of leaves used for cooking. The books were finally printed in 1831 by Ellis with the help of his manager Muthusamy Pillai and Tamil scholar Tandavaraya Mudaliar.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Subsequent editions of the Tirukkuṟaḷ appeared in 1833, 1838, 1840, and 1842.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Soon many commentaries followed, including those by Mahalinga Iyer, who published only the first 24 chapters.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". The Kural has been continuously in print ever since.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". By 1925, the Kural literature had already appeared in more than 65 editionsLua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". and by the turn of the 21st century, it had crossed 500 editions.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

The first critical edition of the Tirukkaral based on manuscripts discovered in Hindu monasteries and private collections was published in 1861 by Arumuka Navalar – the Jaffna-born Tamil scholar and Shaivism activist.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Navalar, states Zvelebil, was "probably the greatest and most influential among the forerunners" in studying numerous versions and bringing out an edited split-sandhi version for the scholarship of the Kurral and many other historic Tamil texts in the 19th century.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

Parimelalhagar's commentary on the Tirukkuṟaḷ was published for the first time in 1840 and became the most widely published commentary ever since.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". In 1850, the Kural was published with commentaries by Vedagiri Mudaliar, who published a revised version later in 1853.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". This is the first time that the entire Kural text was published with commentaries.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". In 1917, Manakkudavar's commentary for the first book of the Kural text was published by V. O. Chidambaram Pillai.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Manakkudavar commentary for the entire Kural text was first published in 1925 by K. Ponnusami Nadar.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". As of 2013, Perimelalhagar's commentary appeared in more than 200 editions by as many as 30 publishers.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

Since the 1970s, the Kural text has been transliterated into ancient Tamil scripts such as the Tamil-Brahmi script, Pallava script, Vatteluttu script and others by Gift Siromoney of the International Institute of Tamil Studies at the Madras Christian College.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

## Comparison with other ancient literature

A 1960 commemorative stamp of Valluvar

The Kural text is a part of the ancient Tamil literary tradition, yet it is also a part of the "one great Indian ethical, didactic tradition", as a few of his verses are "undoubtedly" translations of the verses in Sanskrit classics.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". The themes and ideas in Tirukkuṟaḷ – sometimes with close similarities and sometimes with significant differences – are also found in Manu's Manusmriti, Kautilya's Arthashastra, Kamandaka's Nitisara, and Vatsyayana's Kamasutra.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Some of the teachings in the Tirukkuṟaḷ, states Zvelebil, are "undoubtedly" based on the then extant Sanskrit works such as the more ancient Arthashastra and Manusmriti.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

According to Zvelebil, the Tirukkuṟaḷ borrows "a great number of lines" and phrases from earlier Tamil texts. For example, phrases found in Kuruntokai (lit. "The Collection of Short [Poems]") and many lines in Narrinai (lit. "The Excellent Love Settings") which starts with an invocation to Vishnu, appear in the later Tirukkuṟaḷ.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Authors who came after the composition of the Tirukkuṟaḷ similarly extensively quoted and borrowed from the Tirukkuṟaḷ. For example, the Prabandhas such as the Tiruvalluvamalai probably from the 10th century CE are anthologies on Tirukkuṟaḷ, and these extensively quote and embed it verses written in meters ascribed to gods, goddesses, and revered Tamil scholars.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Similarly, the love story Perunkatai (lit. "The Great Story") probably composed in the 9th century quotes from the Tirukkuṟaḷ and embeds similar teachings and morals.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Verse 22.59–61 of the Manimekalai – a Buddhist-princess and later nun based love story epic, likely written about the 6th century CE, also quotes the Tirukkuṟaḷ. This Buddhist epic ridicules Jainism while embedding morals and ideals similar to those in the Kural.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

The Tirukkuṟaḷ teachings are similar to those found in Arthasastra but differ in some important aspects. In Valluvar's theory of state, unlike Kautilya, the army (patai) is the most important element. Valluvar recommends that a well kept and well-trained army (patai) led by an able commander and ready to go to war is necessary for a state.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

According to Hajela, the Porul of the Kural text is based on morality and benevolence as its cornerstones.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". The Tirukkuṟaḷ teaches that the ministers and people who work in public office should lead an ethical and moral life.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Unlike the Manusmriti, the Kural does not give women a lowly and dependent position but are rather idealised.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". The Tirukkuṟaḷ also does not give importance to castes or any dynasty of rulers and ministers. The text states that one should call anyone with virtue and kindness a Brahmin.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

### World literature

Scholars compare the teachings in the Tirukkuṟaḷ with those in 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.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

The Kural text and the Confucian sayings recorded in the classic Analects of Chinese (called Lun Yu, meaning "Sacred Sayings") share some similarities. 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.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". While ahimsa or non-violence remains the fundamental virtue of the Valluvarean tradition, Zen remains the central theme in Confucian tradition.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". 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.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Child-rearing is central to the Confucian thought of procreation of humanity and the benevolence of society. The Lun Yu says, "Therefore an enlightened ruler will regulate his people's livelihood so as to ensure that, above they have enough to serve their parents and below they have enough to support their wives and children."Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".[l]

## Reception

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The Kural text has historically received highly esteemed reception from virtually every section of the society. Many post-Sangam and medieval poets have sung in praise of the Kural text and its author. Avvaiyar praised Valluvar as the one who pierced an atom and injected seven seas into it and then compressed it and presented it in the form of his work, emphasizing on the work's succinctness.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". The Kural remains the only work that has been honored with an exclusive work of compiled paeans known as the Tiruvalluva Maalai in the Tamil literary corpus, attributed to 55 different poets, including legendary ones.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". All major Indian religions and sects, including Shaivism, Vaishnavism, Jainism, and Buddhism, have greatly celebrated the Kural text, many of which incorporated Kural's teachings in both their religious and non-religious works, including the Silappathikaram, Manimekalai, Tirumurai, Periya Puranam, and Kamba Ramayanam.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

The Kural has been widely acknowledged within and outside India for its universal, non-denominational values.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". 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."Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". G. U. Pope called its author "a bard of universal man" for being a generalist and universal.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". 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."Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Leo Tolstoy called it "the Hindu Kural" and recommended it to Mahatma Gandhi.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". 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."Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

"I wanted to learn Tamil, only to enable me to study Valluvar's Thirukkural through his mother tongue itself ... Only a few of us know the name of Thiruvalluvar. The North Indians do not know the name of the great saint. There is no one who has given such treasure of wisdom like him." ... "It is a text-book of indispensable authority on moral life. The maxims of Valluvar have touched my soul."

— Mahatma GandhiLua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

Jesuit, Catholic and Protestant missionaries in colonial-era South India have highly praised the text, many of whom went on to translate the text into European languages. The Protestant missionary Edward Jewitt Robinson said that the Kural contains all things and there is nothing which it does not contain.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". The Anglican missionary John Lazarus said, "No Tamil work can ever approach the purity of the Kural. It is a standing repute to modern Tamil."Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". According to the American Christian missionary Emmons E. White, "Thirukkural is a synthesis of the best moral teachings of the world."Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

The Kural has also been exalted by leaders of political, spiritual, social, ethical, religious and other domains of the society since ancient times. 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."Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". According to K. M. Munshi, "Thirukkural is a treatise par excellence on the art of living."Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". The Indian nationalist and Yoga guru Sri Aurobindo stated, "Thirukkural is gnomic poetry, the greatest in planned conception and force of execution ever written in this kind."Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". E. S. 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."Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Zakir Hussain, former President of India, said, "Thirukkural is a treasure house of worldly knowledge, ethical guidance and spiritual wisdom."Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

### Inscriptions and other historical records

The Tirukkuṟaḷ remained the chief administrative text of the Kongu Nadu region of the medieval Tamil land.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Medieval Kural commentaries written by Paridhiyar, Pariperumal, Kaalingar, and Mallar have all been found in the Kongu Region.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Kural inscriptions and other historical records are found across Tamil Nadu. The 15th-century Jain inscriptions in the Ponsorimalai near Mallur in Salem district bear couplet 251 from the "Shunning meat" chapter of the Kural text, indicating that the people of the Kongu Nadu region practiced ahimsa and non-killing as chief virtues.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Other inscriptions include the 1617 CE Poondurai Nattar scroll in Kongu Nadu, the 1798 CE Palladam Angala Parameshwari Kodai copper inscriptions in Naranapuram in Kongu Nadu, the 18th-century copper inscriptions found in Kapilamalai near Kapilakkuricchi town in Namakkal district, Veeramudiyalar mutt copper inscriptions in Palani, Karaiyur copper inscription in Kongu Nadu, Palaiyakottai records, and the 1818 Periya Palayathamman temple inscriptions by Francis Ellis at Royapettah in Chennai.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

### In popular culture

A Kural couplet on display inside a Chennai Metro train

Various portraits of Valluvar have been drawn and used by the Shivaite and Jain communities of Tamil Nadu since ancient times. These portraits appeared in various poses, with Valluvar's appearance varying from matted hair to fully shaven head. The portrait of Valluvar with matted hair and a flowing beard, as drawn by artist K. R. Venugopal Sharma in 1960, was accepted by the state and central governments as an official version.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". It soon became a popular and the most ubiquitous modern portrait of the poet.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". 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.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".[m]

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 Bharadwaj. Singers who have performed full-fledged Tirukkuṟaḷ concerts include M. M. Dandapani Desikar and Chidambaram C. S. Jayaraman.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". 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.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". In January 2016, Chitravina N. Ravikiran set the entire 1330 verses to music in a record time of 16 hours.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

Sand sculpture of Valluvar at the Chennai Book Fair 2020

In 1818, the then Collector of Madras Francis Whyte Ellis issued a gold coin bearing Valluvar's image.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".[n][o] In the late 19th century, the South Indian saint 'Vallalar' Ramalinga Swamigal taught the Kural's message by conducting regular Kural classes to the masses.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". In 1968, the Tamil Nadu government made it mandatory to display a Kural couplet in all government buses. The train running a distance of 2,921 kilometers between Kanyakumari and New Delhi is named by the Indian Railways as the Thirukural Express.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

The Kural is part of Tamil people's everyday life across the global Tamil diaspora. K. Balachander's Kavithalayaa Productions opened its films with the very first couplet of the Kural sung in the background.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Kural's phrases and ideas are found in numerous songs of Tamil movies.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Several Tirukkuṟaḷ conferences were conducted in the twentieth century, such as those by Tirukkural V. Munusamy in 1941Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". and by Periyar E. V. Ramasamy in 1949.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". These were attended by several scholars, celebrities and politicians.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". The Kural's couplets and thoughts are also widely employed in visual arts,Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". music,Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". dance,Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". street shows,Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". recitals,Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". activities,Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". and puzzles and riddles.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". The couplets are frequently quoted by various political leaders even in pan-Indian contexts outside the Tamil diaspora, including Ram Nath Kovind,Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". P. Chidambaram,Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". and Nirmala Sitaraman.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". When Jallikattu aficionados claimed that the sport is only to demonstrate the "Tamil love for the bull", the then Indian Minister of Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi denied the claim citing that the Tirukkural does not sanction cruelty to animals.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has quoted the couplets on several occasions,Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". including his recital to the Indian armed forces in 2020.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". The Kural literature is one of the ancient texts from which the Economic Survey of India, the official annual report of the state of India's economy, draws heavy references.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

### Temples and memorials

Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". The Kural text and its author have been highly venerated over the centuries. In the early 16th century, the Shaiva Hindu community built a temple within the Ekambareeswara-Kamakshi (Shiva-Parvati) temple complex in Mylapore, Chennai, in honor of the Tirukkuṟaḷ's author, Valluvar.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". The locals believe that this is where Valluvar was born, underneath a tree within the shrine's complex. A Valluvar statue in yoga position holding a palm leaf manuscript of the Tirukkuṟaḷ sits under the tree.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". In the shrine dedicated to him, Valluvar's wife Vasukiamma is patterned after the Hindu deity Kamakshi inside the sanctum. The temple shikhara (spire) above the sanctum shows scenes of Hindu life and deities, along with Valluvar reading his couplets to his wife.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". The sthala vriksham (holy tree of the temple) at the temple is the oil-nut or iluppai tree under which Valluvar is believed to have been born.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". The temple was extensively renovated in the 1970s.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

Shrine of Valluvar at a temple in Mylapore

Additional Valluvar shrines in South India are found at Tiruchuli,Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Periya Kalayamputhur, Thondi, Neduvasal, Kanjoor Thattanpady, Senapathy, and Vilvarani.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Many of these communities, including those in Mylapore and Tiruchuli, consider Valluvar as the 64th Nayanmar of the Saivite tradition and worship him as god and saint.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". According to T. Dharmaraj, head of the folklore department at Madurai Kamaraj University, many people in the state of Tamil Nadu claim Valluvar to be their ancestor, along with Avvaiyar, Kapilar, and Sage Agastya. He adds that people from the southern districts of Tamil Nadu worship Valluvar as god.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

In 1976, Valluvar Kottam, a monument to honor the Kural literature and its author, was constructed in Chennai.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". The chief element of the monument includes a Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". chariot, a replica of the chariot in the temple town of Thiruvarur, and it contains a life-size statue of Valluvar. Around the chariot's perimeter are marble plates inscribed with Tirukkuṟaḷ couplets.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". All the 1,330 verses of the Kural text are inscribed on bas-relief in the corridors in the main hall.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

Statues of Valluvar have been erected across the globe, including the ones at Kanyakumari, Chennai, Bengaluru, Pondicherry, Vishakapatnam, Haridwar, Prayagraj,Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Puttalam, Singapore, London and Taiwan.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". The tallest of these is the Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". stone statue of Valluvar erected in 2000 atop a small islet 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.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". This statue is currently India's 25th tallest. A life-size statue of Valluvar is one among an array of statues installed by the Tamil Nadu government on the stretch of the Marina Beach.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

## Legacy

Statue of Valluvar, along with the Vivekananda memorial, off the coast of Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu

The Kural remains one of the most influential Tamil texts admired by generations of scholars.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". The work has inspired Tamil culture and people from all walks of life, generating parallels in the literature of various languages within the Indian subcontinent.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Its translations into European languages starting from the early 18th century made the work known globally.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Authors influenced by the Kural include Ilango Adigal, Seethalai Satthanar, Sekkilar, Kambar, Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Schweitzer, Ramalinga Swamigal, E. S. 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.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

A Kural discourse in Chennai in January 2019

The Kural is an oft-quoted Tamil work.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Classical Tamil 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.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Kural couplets and thoughts are cited in 32 instances in the Purananuru, 35 in Purapporul Venba Maalai, 1 each in Pathittrupatthu and the Ten Idylls, 13 in the Silappathikaram, 91 in the Manimekalai, 20 in Jivaka Chinthamani, 12 in Villi Bharatham, 7 in Thiruvilaiyadal Puranam, and 4 in Kanda Puranam.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". In Kamba Ramayanam, poet Kambar has used Kural ideas in as many as 600 instances.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". The work is commonly quoted in vegetarian conferences, both in India and abroad,Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". and is frequently cited on social media and online forums involving discussions on the topics of animal rights, non-killing, and shunning meat.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

The Kural text was first included in the school syllabus by the colonial-era British government.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". However, only select 275 couplets had been taught to the schoolchildren from Standards III through XII.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Attempts to include the Kural literature as a compulsory subject in schools were ineffective in the decades following Indian Independence.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". On 26 April 2016, the Madras High Court directed the Tamil Nadu 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."Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". The court further observed, "No other philosophical or religious work has such moral and intellectual approach to problems of life."Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

The Kural is believed to have inspired many, including Mahatma Gandhi, to pursue the path of ahimsa or non-violence.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". 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.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Gandhi then took to studying the Kural in prison, which eventually culminated in his starting the non-violence movement to fight against the ruling British government.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". The 19th-century poet-saint 'Vallalar' Ramalinga Swamigal was inspired by the Kural at a young age, who then spent his life promoting compassion and non-violence, emphasizing on non-killing and meatless way of life.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

## See also

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* Eastern philosophy
* List of historic Indian texts
* Vedas

Philosophy Series Sidebar

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## Notes

a. ^ The Kural strictly insists on moral vegetarianism,Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". the doctrine that humans are morally obligated to refrain from eating meat or harming sentient beings,Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". which is equated to veganism of today.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". The concept of ahimsa or Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24"., which remains the moral foundation of vegetarianism and veganism, is described in the Kural chapter on non-violence (Chapter 32).Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". For modern philosophers' take on this, see, for example, Engel's "The Immorality of Eating Meat" (2000).Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

b. ^ For examples of Sanskrit loan words, see Zvelebil's The Smile of Murugan.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

c. ^ The Valluvar Year is obtained by adding 31 years to the present Gregorian year.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

d. ^ Nallaswamy Pillai declares Pope's claim as "an absurd literary anachronism" and says that the first two books of the Kural in particular are "a stumbling block which can browbeat the most sublime ideas of Christian morality."Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". John Lazarus observes that, in stark contrast to the Bible's concept of killing, which refers only to the taking away of human life, the Kural's concept of killing "deals exclusively with the literal taking away of life"Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". and thus applies to both humans and animals.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

e. ^ Quote: "Non-killing is an absolute virtue (aram) in the Arattuppal (the glory of virtue section), but the army's duty is to kill in battle and the king has to execute a number of criminals in the process of justice. In these cases, the violations of the aram [in the earlier section] are justified [by Thiruvalluvar] in virtue of the special duties cast on the king and the justification is that 'a few wicked must be weeded out to save the general public' (TK 550)."Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

f. ^ 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. Since the medieval commentators have variously changed the chapter ordering within the books of the Kural text and couplet ordering within the chapters, the present numbering of the chapters and couplets is not the author's.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

g. ^ Avvaiyar's Gnanakural and Umapathi Shivachariyar's Tiruvarutpayan, both of which appeared centuries later, further the ideas of the Kural's chapters on veedu or moksha and are considered as Veettuppāl (Books of Salvation).Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

h. ^ The doctrine of nishkama karma in Hinduism states that the dharmic householder can achieve the same goals as the renouncing monk through "inner renunciation", that is "motiveless action."Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Cf. kural 629: "He who never exulted in joy will not be depressed by sorrow."Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". This is recommended by the Bhagavad Gita as well, which discusses and synthesizes the three dominant trends in Hinduism, namely, enlightenment-based renunciation, dharma-based householder life, and devotion-based theism, and this synthetic answer of the Gita recommends that one must resist the "either–or" view, and consider a "both–and" view.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24". Valluvar's insistence on renouncing worldly attachments can be noted in couplets 341 and 342.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

i. ^ 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."Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

j. ^ Commentary – sometimes referred to as bhashya or urai in the Indian tradition – refers to explanations and interpretations of aphoristic texts. These are written by various scholars to develop, comment on and expound the terse ideas such as a kural or a sutra or any text of significant significance (e.g. Jain, Hindu and Buddhist scriptures).Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

k. ^ This translation was published in the bulletin of the Rama Varma Research Institute, Vol. VI, Pt. II; Vol. VIII, Pt., Vol. IX, Pt. I in 1938, 1940, and 1941, respectively.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

l. ^ Compare this with Chapter 7 of the Tirukkuṟaḷ—the Kural chapter on bearing children.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

m. ^ Government of Tamil Nadu, G. O. Ms. 1193, dated 1967.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

n. ^ 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 Tirukkuṟaḷ 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 Tirukkuṟaḷ.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".

o. ^ The original inscription in Tamil written in the asiriyapa metre and first-person perspective: (The kural couplet he quotes is in italics)Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".
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1. ↑ Pillai, 1994.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Sundaram 1990, pp. 7–16.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Blackburn 2000, pp. 449–482.
4. ↑ Zvelebil 1973, pp. 157–158.
5. ↑ Lal 1992, pp. 4333–4334, 4341.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Holmström, Krishnaswamy, and Srilata, 2009, p. 5.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Zvelebil 1975, p. 124.
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 8.8 Zvelebil 1973, p. 156.
9. ↑ Cutler, 1992.
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Chakravarthy Nainar, 1953.
11. ↑ Krishna, 2017.
12. ↑ Thani Nayagam, 1971, p. 252.
13. ↑ Sanjeevi, 2006, p. 84.
14. ↑ Krishnamoorthy, 2004, pp. 206–208.
15. ↑ Dharani 2018, p. 101.
16. ↑ Das 1997, pp. 11–12.
17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4 Zvelebil 1973, pp. 156–171.
18. ↑ Sundaram 1990, p. 13.
19. ↑ Manavalan, 2009, pp. 127–129.
20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 Zvelebil 1973, pp. 160–163.
21. ↑ Hikosaka & Samuel 1990, p. 200.
22. ↑ Ananthanathan, 1994, pp. 151–154.
23. ↑ Kaushik Roy 2012, pp. 151–154.
24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 Lal 1992, pp. 4333–4334.
25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Thamizhannal, 2004, p. 146.
26. ↑ Sundaramurthi, 2000, p. 624.
27. ↑ Maharajan, 2017, p. 19.
28. ↑ Kovaimani and Nagarajan, 2013, p. 29.
29. ↑ Manavalan, 2009, p. 24.
30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 Chellammal, 2015, p. 119.
31. ↑ Sundaram 1987, pp. 7–16.
32. ↑ Nedunchezhiyan, 1991, p. vii.
33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 Kowmareeshwari, 2012a, pp. iv–vi.
34. ↑ Winslow, 1862.
35. ↑ Takahashi, 1999, pp. 53–54.
36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 Zvelebil 1975, p. 124 with footnotes.
37. ↑ 37.0 37.1 37.2 Zvelebil 1973, pp. 170–171.
38. ↑ Zvelebil 1973, p. 169.
39. ↑ Zvelebil 1973, p. 171.
40. ↑ 40.0 40.1 Blackburn 2000, p. 454 with footnote 7.
41. ↑ Arumugam, 2014, pp. 5, 15.
42. ↑ Thamizhannal, 2004, p. 141.
43. ↑ Hindustan Times, 16 January 2020.
44. ↑ Polilan et al., 2024, p. 94.
45. ↑ Thiruvalluvar Ninaivu Malar, 1935, p. 117.
46. ↑ Pope, 1886, p. i (Introduction).
47. ↑ Tamil Virtual University, n.d.
48. ↑ Pillai, 2015, p. 83.
49. ↑ 49.0 49.1 Zvelebil 1973, p. 155.
50. ↑ 50.0 50.1 Zvelebil 1975, p. 125.
51. ↑ Ramakrishnan, The Hindu, 6 November 2019, p. 4.
52. ↑ Blackburn 2000, pp. 456–457.
53. ↑ 53.0 53.1 Blackburn 2000, pp. 458–464.
54. ↑ Zvelebil 1975, pp. 124–125.
55. ↑ Shulman 2016, p. 95.
56. ↑ Pavanar, 2017, pp. 24–26.
57. ↑ 57.0 57.1 Blackburn 2000, pp. 460–464.
58. ↑ Blackburn 2000, pp. 459–464.
59. ↑ 59.0 59.1 Waghorne, 2004, pp. 120–125.
60. ↑ Manavalan, 2009, p. 232.
61. ↑ Desikar, 1969, pp. 128–130.
62. ↑ 62.0 62.1 Pillai, 2015, p. 75.
63. ↑ Manavalan, 2009, p. 42.
64. ↑ Schweitzer, 2013, pp. 200–205 (cited in Shakti, Volume 5, 1968, p. 29).
65. ↑ 65.0 65.1 Kaushik Roy 2012, pp. 152–154, context: 144–154 (Chapter: Hinduism and the Ethics of Warfare in South Asia).
66. ↑ 66.0 66.1 Swamiji Iraianban 1997, p. 13.
67. ↑ 67.0 67.1 Sundaram 1990, pp. xiii–xvii, Appendix note on verse 1103.
68. ↑ 68.0 68.1 68.2 Johnson, 2009.
69. ↑ Blackburn 2000, pp. 463–464.
70. ↑ Chakravarthy, 1953.
71. ↑ Chakravarthy, 1987, p. 179.
72. ↑ Zvelebil 1974, p. 119 with footnote 10.
73. ↑ Aravindan 2018, p. 384.
74. ↑ Ananthanathan, 1994, p. 325.
75. ↑ Kovaimani and Nagarajan, 2013, pp. 145–148.
76. ↑ 76.0 76.1 Natarajan, 2008, pp. 4–5.
77. ↑ Blackburn 2000, pp. 464–465.
78. ↑ Ricard, 2016, p. 27.
79. ↑ Manninezhath, 1993, pp. 78–79.
80. ↑ Zvelebil, 1984, pp. 681–682.
81. ↑ Muniapan and Rajantheran, 2011, p. 462.
82. ↑ Natarajan, 2008, pp. 1–6.
83. ↑ Manavalan, 2009, p. 22.
84. ↑ Zvelebil 1973, pp. 155–156.
85. ↑ Kovaimani and Nagarajan, 2013, p. 489.
86. ↑ 86.0 86.1 86.2 86.3 86.4 86.5 Kumar, 1999, pp. 91–92.
87. ↑ 87.0 87.1 87.2 87.3 Mukherjee, 1999, pp. 392–393.
88. ↑ Drew, 1840.
89. ↑ Than, 2011, p. 113.
90. ↑ DT Next, 22 February 2021.
91. ↑ Nivetha, DT Next, 5 February 2024.
92. ↑ Vanmeegar, 2012, pp. vii–xvi.
93. ↑ Nagarajan, The Hindu, 14 August 2012.
94. ↑ K. V. Nagarajan 2005, pp. 123–124.
95. ↑ Lal 1992, pp. 4333, 4341.
96. ↑ Pillai, 2015, pp. 77–78.
97. ↑ 97.0 97.1 Srinivasachari 1949, p. 15.
98. ↑ Pillai, 1972, pp. 5–7.
99. ↑ 99.0 99.1 Kandasamy, 2017, p. 9.
100. ↑ 100.0 100.1 100.2 100.3 Sharma, 2018, pp. 119–121.
101. ↑ Kovaimani and Nagarajan, 2013, p. 19.
102. ↑ Amaladass, 2007, p. 16.
103. ↑ 103.0 103.1 Vijayaraghavan, The Economic Times, 22 September 2005.
104. ↑ 104.0 104.1 104.2 Zvelebil 1973, pp. 158–160.
105. ↑ 105.0 105.1 105.2 105.3 105.4 105.5 105.6 Zvelebil 1973, pp. 158–163.
106. ↑ 106.0 106.1 Desikar, 1969, p. 73.
107. ↑ Aravindan 2018, pp. 105, 346–348.
108. ↑ Jagannathan, 2014, pp. 32–33.
109. ↑ Anandan, 2018, p. 137.
110. ↑ 110.0 110.1 110.2 110.3 Kumaravelan 2008, pp. 4–17.
111. ↑ Aravindan 2018, p. 342.
112. ↑ 112.0 112.1 Zvelebil 1973, p. 158.
113. ↑ Aravindan 2018, pp. 342–343.
114. ↑ Kandasamy 2020, p. 16.
115. ↑ Aravindan 2018, pp. 344–345.
116. ↑ 116.0 116.1 Aravindan 2018, pp. 346–348.
117. ↑ Vamanan, The Times of India, 1 November 2021.
118. ↑ 118.0 118.1 Gopalakrishnan, 2012, p. 144.
119. ↑ The Hindu (Tamil), 16 January 2014.
120. ↑ 120.0 120.1 120.2 Kandasamy, 2017, p. 12.
121. ↑ 121.0 121.1 Kandasamy, 2017, pp. 12–13.
122. ↑ Kandasamy, 2017, p. 13.
123. ↑ Zvelebil 1973, p. 163.
124. ↑ Zvelebil 1973, p. 159.
125. ↑ Mahadevan, 1985, p. 187.
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128. ↑ Chatterjee, 2021, p. 77.
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131. ↑ Gopalakrishnan, 2012, pp. 29–31, 44.
132. ↑ Gopalakrishnan, 2012, pp. 49, 54.
133. ↑ Manavalan, 2009, p. 27.
134. ↑ Aiyar, 1916, p. 69.
135. ↑ Kandasamy, 2017, pp. 10–12.
136. ↑ Desikar, 1969, p. 42.
137. ↑ Alathur Kilar, pp. Verse 34.
138. ↑ Kowmareeshwari, 2012b, pp. 46–47.
139. ↑ Velusamy and Faraday, 2017, p. 55.
140. ↑ Valluvar, pp. Verse 37.
141. ↑ Visveswaran, 2016, pp. ix–xi.
142. ↑ Schweitzer, 2013, pp. 200–205.
143. ↑ Gautam and Mishra, 2023.
144. ↑ Kumar, 1999, p. 92.
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146. ↑ Ananthanathan, 1994, p. 316.
147. ↑ Kaushik Roy 2012, pp. 144–151, 152–154.
148. ↑ Sivagnanam, 1974, p. 8.
149. ↑ Sundaramurthi, 2000, pp. 403–408.
150. ↑ Mahadevan, 1985, pp. 193–195.
151. ↑ Sivagnanam, 1974, pp. 10–11, 96.
152. ↑ Kovaimani and Nagarajan, 2013, pp. 176–181, 328–334.
153. ↑ Joshi, 2021, p. 5.

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* Das, G. N. (1997). Readings from Thirukkural. Abhinav Publications. ISBN 8170173426. https://books.google.com/books?id=pDZilIimNRIC&pg=PA11.
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* N. Sanjeevi (2006). First All India Tirukkural Seminar Papers (2nd ed.). Chennai: University of Madras.
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* R. P. Sethupillai (1956) (in ta). திருவள்ளுவர் நூல்நயம் [Thiruvalluvar Noolnayam] (10th ed.). Chennai: Kazhaga Veliyeedu.
* M. Shanmukham Pillai (1972). திருக்குறள் அமைப்பும் முறையும் [The structure and method of Tirukkural] (1 ed.). Chennai: University of Madras.
* Radha R. Sharma (2018). "A value-centric approach to eudaimonia (human flourishing) and sustainability.". Developing a Sustainability Mindset in Management Education (1 ed.). New York: Routledge. pp. 113–132. ISBN 978-1783537273.
* M. P. Sivagnanam (1974). திருக்குறளிலே கலைபற்றிக் கூறாததேன்? [Why does the Tirukkural not speak about art?]. Chennai: Poonkodi Padhippagam.
* Sundaram, P.S. (1987). Kural (Tiruvalluvar). Penguin Books. ISBN 978-9351180159. https://books.google.com/books?id=aPpv2F2RRgcC.
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* K. Veeramani (2015). Tirukkural—Valluvar: Collected Works of Thanthai Periyar E. V. Ramasamy (1 ed.). Chennai: The Periyar Self-Respect Propaganda Institution. ISBN 978-9380971919.
* H. V. Visveswaran (2016). தமிழனின் தத்துவம் திருக்குறள் அறம் [The Tamil's Philosophy: Tirukkural Virtue] (1 ed.). Chennai: Notion Press. ISBN 978-9386073747.
* Zvelebil, Kamil (1973). The Smile of Murugan: On Tamil Literature of South India. Leiden: E.J. Brill. ISBN 9004035915. https://books.google.com/books?id=degUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA155. Retrieved 7 March 2018.
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* R. G. Rajaram (2015). Sacred Kurral of Thiruvalluvar—Arattuppal (1 ed.). Tenkasi, India: Thiruvalluvar Kazhagam.
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* P. V. Kane (2015). History of Sanskrit Poetics. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 29. ISBN 978-8120802742.
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* N. Velusamy and Moses Michael Faraday (Eds.) (2017) (in ta, en). Why Should Thirukkural Be Declared the National Book of India? (First ed.). Chennai: Unique Media Integrators. ISBN 978-9385471704.
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* Walsh, William (2018). Secular Virtue: for surviving, thriving, and fulfillment. Will Walsh. ISBN 978-0692054185.

#### Journals and Magazines

* Anand Amaladass (2007). "Values in leadership in the Tamil tradition of Tirukkural vs. present-day leadership theories". International Management Review 3 (1): 9–16. http://americanscholarspress.us/journals/IMR/pdf/IMR-1-2007/v3n107-art1.pdf. Retrieved 26 November 2023.
* A. K. Ananthanathan (1994). "Theory and Functions of the State The Concept of aṟam (virtue) in Tirukkural". East and West 44 (2/4): 315–326.
* Karthik Bhatt (March 16–31, 2020). "Arupathu Moovar – 110 years ago". Madras Musings XXIX (23). http://www.madrasmusings.com/vol-29-no-23/arupathu-moovar-110-years-ago/.
* Blackburn, Stuart (2000). "Corruption and Redemption: The Legend of Valluvar and Tamil Literary History". Modern Asian Studies 34 (2): 449–482. doi:10.1017/S0026749X00003632. http://journals.cambridge.org/download.php?file=/ASS/ASS34_02/S0026749X0000363Xa.pdf&code=3271a95da1f62e5a9a01ec5fab104dcd. Retrieved 20 August 2007.
* "Veganism, a superior way of life". Business Economics (Kolkata). 1 April 2017. https://businesseconomics.in/veganism-superior-way-life.
* Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".
* Pradeep Chakravarthy and Ramesh Ramachandran (16–31 August 2009). "Thiruvalluvar's shrine". Madras Musings XIX (9). http://madrasmusings.com/Vol 19 No 9/thiruvalluvars_shrine.html. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
* Cutler, Norman (1992). "Interpreting Thirukkural: the role of commentary in the creation of a text". The Journal of the American Oriental Society 112 (4): 549–566. doi:10.2307/604470.
* Dharani, D. (2018). "Medicine in Thirukkural, The Universal Veda of Tamil Literature". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress 79 (2018–19): 101–108.
* Zvelebil, Kamil (1984). "Tirukural, translated from Tamil into Russian by J. Glazov". Archiv Orientální 32: 681–682.
* Christopher G. Framarin (2006). "The Desire You Are Required to Get Rid of: A Functionalist Analysis of Desire in the Bhagavadgītā". Philosophy East and West (University of Hawai'i Press) 56 (4): 604–617. doi:10.1353/pew.2006.0051.
* Geetha, V.; Rajadurai, S. V. (1993). "Dalits and Non-Brahmin Consciousness in Colonial Tamil Nadu". Economic and Political Weekly 28 (39): 2091–2098.
* K. V. Nagarajan (2005). "Thiruvalluvar's Vision: Polity and Economy in Thirukkural". History of Political Economy (Duke University Press) 37 (1): 123–132. doi:10.1215/00182702-37-1-123.
* Nikam, N. A. (1952). "A Note on the Individual and His Status in Indian Thought". Philosophy East and West (University of Hawai'i Press) 2 (3): 254–258. doi:10.2307/1397274.
* Karin Preisendanz (2005). "The Production of Philosophical Literature in South Asia during the Pre-Colonial Period (15th to 18th Centuries): The Case of the Nyāyasūtra Commentarial Tradition". Journal of Indian Philosophy 33.
* Devin K. Joshi (2021). "Humanist but not Radical: The Educational Philosophy of Thiruvalluvar Kural". Studies in Philosophy and Education 40 (2): 183–200. doi:10.1007/s11217-020-09750-9. https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4539&context=soss_research.
* Balakrishnan Muniapan and M. Rajantheran (2011). "Ethics (business ethics) from the Thirukkural and its relevance for contemporary business leadership in the Indian context". International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management 4 (4): 453–471. https://www.academia.edu/21748352.
* Sharma, Sriram (29 August 2018). "வரலாற்றுப் பிழை [A blunder in history]". Tughluq [Tamil]: 41–42.
* Subramaniam, V. (1963). "A Tamil classic on statecraft". Australian Outlook (Taylor & Francis) 17 (2): 162–174. doi:10.1080/10357716308444141. ISSN 0004-9913.
* Srinivasachari, C. S. (1949). "The Political Ideology of the Kural". The Indian Journal of Political Science 10 (4): 15–23.
* Pallu, Nelza Mara; Mohanty, Panchanan; Durga, Shiva (May 2023). "Thirukkural Translations: A Sacred Text From the Town of Peacocks—Mayilâpûr India". International Journal of Development Research 13 (5): 62551–62553. doi:10.37118/ijdr.26323.05.2023. ISSN 2230-9926. https://www.journalijdr.com/sites/default/files/issue-pdf/26323.pdf. Retrieved 18 November 2023.
* "Maraimalaiyadigal Thalaimaiyurai". Thiruvalluvar Ninaivu Malar: 117. 1935.
* Than, Myint Myint (December 2011). "The Coincidence of Buddhist Ethics in the Tamil Treatise, the Thirukkural: on Preface". Universities Research Journal (The Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, Ministry of Education) 4 (7): 113–124. https://studylib.net/doc/18725140/universities-research-journal
myanmar. Retrieved 26 November 2023.

#### Newspapers

* India Today Webdesk (27 April 2016), "Madras High Court makes in-depth study of Tirukkural compulsory in schools", India Today, https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/news/story/madras-hc-tirukkural-compulsory-320294-2016-04-27, retrieved 13 February 2019
* Kabirdoss, Yogesh (18 July 2018). "Neglect leading Valluvar Kottam to ruin". The Times of India (Chennai: The Times Group). https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/neglect-leading-valluvar-kottam-to-ruin/articleshow/65035523.cms.
* Kannan, Kaushik (11 March 2013). "Saint poet's guru pooja at Tiruchuli". The New Indian Express (Tiruchuli: Express Publications). https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/tamil-nadu/2013/mar/11/saint-poets-guru-pooja-at-tiruchuli-457417.html.
* Kolappan, B. (2 October 2017). "A customs officer and the true import of Kural". The Hindu (Chennai: Kasturi & Sons). https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/a-customs-officer-and-the-true-import-of-kural/article19783808.ece.
* PTI (3 July 2020). "PM Modi quotes from 'Tirukkural' again, now for soldiers in Ladakh". Business Line (Chennai: Kasturi & Sons). https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/variety/pm-modi-quotes-from-tirukkural-again-now-for-soldiers-in-ladakh/article31983847.ece.
* Kolappan, B. (3 October 2018). "First printed Tirukkural to be republished after 168 years". The Hindu (Chennai: Kasturi & Sons). https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/first-printed-tirukkural-to-be-republished-after-168-years/article25106575.ece.
* Nagarajan, M. S. (14 August 2012). "Indian epics vs. Western philosophy". The Hindu (Kasturi & Sons). https://www.thehindu.com/books/indian-epics-vs-western-philosophy/article3764566.ece.
* "102 மொழிகளில் திருக்குறள்: செம்மொழி நிறுவனம் முயற்சி". Dinamalar (Chennai). 20 October 2021. https://www.dinamalar.com/news/tamil-nadu-news/news/2871182.
* Kolappan, B. (18 October 2015). "From merchant to Tirukkural scholar". The Hindu (Chennai: Kasturi & Sons). http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/from-merchant-to-tirukkural-scholar/article7775746.ece.
* "Pujas are regular at this temple for Thiruvalluvar". The Times of India (Madurai: The Times Group). 9 November 2019. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/madurai/pujas-are-regular-at-this-temple-for-thiruvalluvar/articleshow/71976726.cms.
* Madhavan, D. (26 August 2016). "Divided by language and culture, united by love for Tirukkural". The Hindu (Chennai: Kasturi & Sons). https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/Divided-by-language-and-culture-united-by-love-for-Tirukkural/article14590178.ece.
* Vijayaraghavan, K. (22 September 2005). "The benefits of nishkama karma". The Economic Times (Bennett, Coleman). https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/the-benefits-of-nishkama-karma/articleshow/1238756.cms?from=mdr.
* Pandey, Kirti (1 February 2020). "Budget 2020: What is Thirukkural and who was Thiruvalluvar that Nirmala Sitharaman cited in her speech?". Times Now (New Delhi: TimesNowNews.com). https://www.timesnownews.com/india/article/budget-2020-what-is-thirukkural-and-who-was-thiruvalluvar-that-nirmala-sitharaman-cited-in-her-speech/548074.
* Madhavan, Karthik (21 June 2010). "Tamil saw its first book in 1578". The Hindu (Coimbatore: Kasturi & Sons). http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/Tamil-saw-its-first-book-in-1578/article16261303.ece.
* "Economic Survey 2020 draws heavy references from Kautilya's Arthashashtra". Business Today (New Delhi: BusinessToday.in). 31 January 2020. https://www.businesstoday.in/union-budget-2020/news/economic-survey-2020-draws-heavy-references-kautilya-arthashashtra/story/395050.html.
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* TNN (26 July 2017). "Teach Thirukkural to next generation: high court judge". The Times of India (Madurai: The Times Group). https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/madurai/teach-thirukkural-to-next-generation-high-court-judge/articleshow/59763381.cms.
* TNN (1 February 2020). "Gita, Veda, Thirukkural, Adam Smith...survey of great thoughts". The Times of India (New Delhi: Times Publications). https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/gita-veda-thirukkural-adam-smith-survey-of-great-thoughts/articleshow/73824567.cms.
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* "பொலிவிழந்து வரும் மயிலாப்பூர் திருவள்ளுவர் கோயில்!" (in ta). Dinamani (Chennai: The New Indian Express Group). 20 September 2012. https://www.dinamani.com/all-editions/edition-chennai/chennai/2009/jul/31/பொலிவிழந்து-வரும்-மயிலாப்பூர்-திருவள்ளுவர்-கோயில்-49433.html.
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#### Online

* Anbarasan, Komal (16 January 2019). "30 ஆண்டு தவத்தில் கிடைத்த வள்ளுவர்! [Valluvar obtained after a 30-year penance"]. https://minnambalam.com/k/2019/01/16/16.
* Chakravarthy Nainar, A. (1953). "Kural – Uttaraveda". Ahimsa Foundation. https://www.jainsamaj.org/content.php?url=Kural_-_Uttaraveda_-_By. "It is a work based on the doctrine of Ahimsa; and throughout, you have the praising of this Ahmisa dharma and the criticism of views opposed to this. (From A. Chakravarthy, Tirukkural, Madras: The Diocesan Press, 1953)"
* "திருவள்ளுவரின் வேறு பெயர்கள் [Other names of Tiruvalluvar"]. Tamil Virtual University. n.d.. http://www.tamilvu.org/library/l2100/html/l2102tvp.htm.
* Anparasu, Umapathy (23 January 2019). "Kuralism". https://kuralism.com/kural-740-and-confucianism/.
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* Siromoney, Gift; Chandrashekaran, M.; Chandrasekaran, R.; Govindaraju, S. (1976). Vattezhuthil Thirukkural. Madras Christian College. https://archive.org/details/VattezhuthilThirukkural/page/n1. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
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* Pradeep Kumar Gautam and Saurabh Mishra (17 August 2023). "Two Texts, One Vision: Kautilya's Arthashastra and Thiruvalluvar's Kural". https://www.e-ir.info/2023/08/17/two-texts-one-vision-kautilyas-arthashastra-and-thiruvalluvars-kural/.
* The Music Academy (2017). "Music Academy Conference lectures". The Music Academy. https://musicacademymadras.in/archives/.
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* Tolstoy, Leo (14 December 1908). "A Letter to A Hindu: The Subjection of India—Its Cause and Cure". http://www.online-literature.com/tolstoy/2733/. "THE HINDU KURAL"
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* Meenakshi Sundaram, T. P. (1957). "Vegetarianism in Tamil Literature". International Vegetarian Union (IVU). https://ivu.org/congress/wvc57/souvenir/tamil.html. "Ahimsa is the ruling principle of Indian life from the very earliest times. ... This positive spiritual attitude is easily explained to the common man in a negative way as "ahimsa" and hence this way of denoting it. Tiruvalluvar speaks of this as "kollaamai" or "non-killing.""

## Further reading

* Aravamudhan, N. R., and Avinash Chandra Supkar. (2022). "Thirukkural—A Veritable Treatise on Leadership Nostrums." Purushartha—A journal of Management, Ethics and Spirituality, Vol. 15, no. 2, 20–31. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21844/16202115202. Print ISSN: 0975-024X; Online ISSN: 2456-1371. https://journals.smsvaranasi.com/index.php/purushartha/article/view/1543/735. Accessed 30 November 2023.
* Stuart Blackburn, "The Legend of Valluvar and Tamil Literary History," Modern Asian Studies 34, 2 (May, 2000): 459.
* Chandramouliswar, R. (1950). Theory of Government in the Kural. Indian Journal of Political Science, 11(3), pp. 1-18. The Indian Political Science Association. ISSN: 0019-5510. https://www.jstor.org/stable/42743290
* Diaz, S. M. (2000). Tirukkural with English Translation and Explanation. (Mahalingam, N., General Editor; 2 volumes), Coimbatore, India: Ramanandha Adigalar Foundation.
* Gnanasambandan, A. S. (1994). Kural Kanda Vaazhvu. Chennai: Gangai Puthaga Nilayam.
* Udaiyar Koil Guna. (n.d.). திருக்குறள் ஒரு தேசிய 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.). Tirukkural: Thatthuva, Yoga, Gnyana Urai [Hardbound]. Salem: Leela Padhippagam. 1067 pp. https://vallalars.blogspot.in/2017/05/thirukkural-thathuva-yoga-gnayna-urai.html
* Nagaswamy, R. Tirukkural: An Abridgement of Sastras. Mumbai: Giri, Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24"..
* 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.
* Smith, Jason W. "The Implied Imperative: Poetry as Ethics in the Proverbs of the Tirukkuṟaḷ". Journal of Religious Ethics 50, no. 1 (2022): 123-145.
* Subramaniyam, Ka Naa. (1987). Tiruvalluvar and his Tirukkural. New Delhi: Bharatiya Jnanpith.
* Thirukkural with English Couplets L'Auberson, Switzerland: Editions ASSA, Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24"..
* 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. Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter has terminated with signal "24".
* Yogi Shuddhananda Bharati (Trans.). (15 May 1995). 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.

## External links

* Tirukkural: Work by Tiruvalluvar from Encyclopædia Britannica
* A collection of The Kural, translated by V.V.S Aiyar eBooks at Standard Ebooks
* G. U. Pope's English Translation of the Tirukkural
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