Tirukkural - "The Universal Veda" Part -1

Tamil is an ancient language existing for more than thousand years. It has recorded literary works expanding over more than 2000 years. Tamil is classified into Eyail Tamil(literature),Esai Tamil(poetry) and Nadaga Tamil(Drama). I believe Tirukkural falls under Eyail Tamil (literature). Tamil is one of the official languages in India. It is said that Tamil has given rise to many other languages. Many literary books belonging to the Old Age have been lost due to the natural calamities.Amongst the existing books, “Tolkappiyam and Tirukkural” is considered as the oldest book in Tamil literature. I would like to explain about Tirukkural in detail.

Tirukkural

Tirukkural is a book containing 1330 hymns called ”kurals” in Tamil. Actually, this word can be spilt into Thiru and kural, where thiru means respect and kural means hymns. There are 133 chapters in tirukkural, each chapter is called adhigaram. Each chapter(adhigaram) contains 10 kurals(hymns). Each hymn contains only 2 lines, in tamil, it’s called “adi” and seven words , which is called as “seer”. The first line of the song contains 4 seers and the second line contains 3 seers, which is the same for all the hymns present in it. Therefore this falls under a grammatical category called “eradi venpa”, which means “ a song of two lines”.

The 133 chapters are grouped into three parts

Part I –Aṟam(அறம்)Aṟattuppāl which is about independent of the surroundings ( Adhigaram 1-38).

Part II - Poruḷ (பொருள்)Poruṭpāl which is about respect to the surroundings (Adhigaram 39-108).

Part III - Inbam (இன்பம்) Iṉbattuppāl which is about involved in conjugal human love (Adhigaram 109-133).

Tirukkural is praised as

Tamiḻ maṟai (Tamil veda), Poyyāmoḻi (words that never fail), Vāyurai vāḻttu (truthful utterances), Ulaga pothumaṟai (The universal veda), and Deiva nūl (divine text).

It is also praised by many great people like

Mahatma Gandhi, an Indian Nationalist has told this thirukkural as a textbook of indispensable authority on moral life.The maxims of Valluvar has touched Gandhi’s soul. There is no book which has given such a wisdom like it. We may not all be aware even of the name of Sage Thiruvalluvar. Few saints have given the people as much knowledge as Valluvar has done in the minimum of words.

The English folklorist,E Charles Grover once said; "The Thirukural's sentences are as binding as the Ten Commandments on the Jews. Kural is as important and influential on the Tamil mind as Dante's great work on the language and thought of Italy".

Rabindranath Tagore, an eminent Indian poet and a great freedom fighter has said that Tirukkural is required not only for our Indians but also for the world.

Moreover, the Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy added;

"What are wanted for the Indian as for the Englishman, the Frenchman, the German, and the Russian, are not Constitutions and Revolutions, nor all sorts of Conferences and Congresses, nor the many ingenious devices for submarine navigation and aerial navigation, nor powerful explosives, nor all sorts of conveniences to add to the enjoyment of the rich, ruling classes; nor gramophones and cinematographs, not those childish and for the most part corrupt stupidities termed art – but one thing only is needful: the knowledge of the simple and clear truth which finds place in every soul that is not stupefied by religious and scientific superstitions – the truth that for our life one law is valid – the law of love, which brings the highest happiness to every individual as well as to all mankind ."

Not only the above mentioned celebrated personalities , people from various sects of the world have praised tirukkural in their own ways.

Please read the second part of the article also.