THIRUKKURAL

Tamil Font

- Tamil Nadu seeks national status for 'Thirukkural' [14-04-2005]

On the eve of the Tamil new year, the state assembly passed unanimous resolution on 13-04-2005 urging the Centre to declare Thirukkural, one of the oldest Tamil literary works — said to belong to the Sangam era, dating back to the first century BC — as a piece of “national literature”, considering its “universality and eternal relevance’’.

Thirukkural, a collection of immortal works of savant, poet and philosopher, Thiruvalluvar, was glorified and held a pride of place in the Tamil Sangam, a literary academy established by the early kings which constituted of eminent scholars, and sometimes included the kings themselves. Literary giants of that period would formally present their works and epics before the academy, later dedicated to the world.

Moving the resolution, Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha said the "Thirukkural" contains the "basics of democracy, politics, governance, secularism and social justice, which were the guiding principles of the country's constitution".

The text, supposed to have been compiled by Tamil savant Thiruvalluvar more than 2,000 years ago, deserves national status, she said.

Though much is not known about his life, Thiruvalluvar is believed to have been born in 31 B.C. in the Mylapore region of the then Madras. While Thirukkural contained values of our ancient traditions, it also included modern republican concepts, the resolution said, pointing out that besides focussing on democracy, politics and governance, the work also mooted social justice and secularism, two of the most important features of the Indian Constitution. “The Thirukkural is the only work that best represents the secular outlook of the Republic of India.’’

His couplets in praise of lord Shiva and his words of wisdom are compiled into a classical text of 133 chapters, each chapter containing 10 couplets, totalling 1,330 couplets. The "Thirukkural" is divided into three sections - the Arathupaal (on principles), Porutpaal (on public life and relationships) and Kamathupaal (on love).

It has been translated into Indian and foreign languages, including English, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese.

- Thirukkural be declared National literature: AIADMK [26-04-2005]

The AIADMK today demanded that Thirukkural declared be as National literature and wanted the government to fund translation of this great piece into various Indian languages. Making a special mention in Rajya Sabha, Mr P G Narayanan said Thirukkural was a great literary piece of ancient Tamil literature dealing with varied topics ranging from politics to good governance, and its understanding would do a lot of good to the present day society and polity.

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