Tirukkural - Author Tiruvalluvar Poem by Rajaram Ramachandran

TIRUKKURAL BY TIRUVALLUVAR - BRIEF INTRODUCTION

Tirukkural of Tiruvalluvar in the Tamil language is a known subject all over the world, as the same has been translated in almost all the languages of the world for its universal morals written in two lines called couplets. Tiruvalluvar is supposed to have lived in the first century at a place near Mylapore, Chennai.

Some say he was a Jain born in a weaver community and was leading a very simple life. There are several stories about his personal life, of which a few I wish to mention here. It may be authentic or not, but they appear to be most authentic from the way Tirukkural was written in 1330 couplets for the benefit of every individual in the world. The best comment on this is, each kural is like one mustard with a hole, inside which seven oceans are hidden. So much meaning it has so to say.

In the first kural the poet has said 'Adhi Bhagawan, ' to mean the first among Gods, the ancient Narayan. Some men have this name Adhinarayanan even today. But some explain the first two lines that he paid respects to his parents, (Mother Adhi and Father Bhagawan) before proceeding further.

He married Vasughi Ammal, being the most obedient wife of that time. She was asked to cook the sand as rice and she did it without asking a question about it. Once when he was taking food along with a guest, he called her name 'Vasughi, Vasughi, ' and she came running. At that time she was drawing water from the well and left the pot full of water half way in the well. It was a wonder that the water loaded pot did not go back to the bottom but stood as it was half way in the well. Such a chaste woman she was that the nature also obeyed her commands then.

She used to keep a conch with water and a needle daily when he was taking food, but she never asked him what it was for. At the time of her death, she had a questioning face, but didn't have the courage to ask him. He noticed her face and asked her for any doubts she had at that time.
Slowly she asked him what for the conch with water and the needle were kept near him when he was taking his food. He smiled and replied, 'My dear, when you served food if any rice falls on the floor I wanted to pick it up with that needle, wash it in water and then eat it free from any dust. But there was no occasion for that as you have been serving me all the time without spilling any rice on the floor.' Such a devoted woman she was during her life time.

The Tamilnadu Government has erected his tallest statue over a rock near the shores of Kanyakumari, South India near Swami Vivekananda Statue and also has written each kural in all the transport buses to honor this poet. Many children have managed to recite all the 1330 couplets from their memory in the competitions held each year. The Government of India want to promote Tirukkural in all the states and make it a national literature for its useful messages to the world, which are applicable even for today's world.

I have left the busy Mumbai City and am now staying at Tiruchirappali, Tamilnadu, South India with my daughter's family. I am now 85 years old and I have more spare time here to look into the books of which Tirukkural is one and am reading analytically each poem giving each couplet my personal views in the form a dialogue between two persons exchanging their ideas on each couplet.

It is a big project I have just entered into and will take months to complete the same. Till today I have completed translating from Tamil to in simple English as usual in respect of 620 couplets at the rate of 10 couplets per day. It will take another two or three months to complete the remaining 710 couplets.

I wish to post at a time 3 couplets per day for the reading pleasure of members.. The problem is this literature is almost 2000 years old and the Tamil language of those days are slightly different from the current period and to find suitable English word is somewhat difficult for me. Yet with the use of Tamil and English dictionaries I was able to manage this problem to some extent.

Hope you will all enjoy this project well and appreciate my efforts to post this in a public forum for them to know how our traditions and culture were so advanced 2000 years back, while the other parts of the world were in Dark Age long before our civilization.