I am a fan of not only the Tamil language but
also the Tamilians in general. My fascination towards the language increased as
I started learning it. First it was out of an urge to excel in work though
there was no career compulsion. Later it was a personal admiration after
knowing the richness in that great language, both oral and written.
I was
posted in Tamil Nadu and as part of a sensitive job handled by me, I used to
come across many handwritten notes in Tamil. Instead of always depending on the
team members I wanted to understand the content myself. I bought a book
‘Learning Tamil in 30 Days’ from the Higginbotham's book stall at Coimbatore
Railway Station. I did the theory at home and the practical in the field. My
first learning assignment was to read all posters of films pasted on all street
walls across the city. As a young man I was equally fascinated with the Tamil
movies as well during those days. I could read all bus boards and all writings
on the signboards and other hoardings. Later I started reading printed texts
though it took much time to complete each page.
But I could understand the content of all letters, petitions, papers and
documents easily and that facilitated by job.
If a Tamilian goes to the nearby state Kerala
and try to speak Malayalam, the cynical mallus (not all but the typical ones.) will try to laugh at
him and tease him. But if a Malayali goes to Tamil Nadu and tries to
communicate through his broken Tamil, they would not get offended. On the
contrary they would appreciate the attempt. That was my experience. I was encouraged by my Tamil friends whenever
I tried to speak in Tamil. I don’t know whether I can generalize this. But the
point I am conveying is that an attitude of inclusiveness and openness can
break the barriers created by language in a country like India that is severely
divided over linguistic affinities.
My inspiration for learning Tamil was my
teacher Shri A Selvaraj, who retired as a Chief Commissioner under the Ministry
of Finance, Government of India. He is a Tamilian but had mastered the
Malayalam language. He spoke fluent Malayalam and read a large number of books
in that language. He could engage in very in-depth debates on most of the
leading Malayalam literary works with any literary critics from Kerala. I
remember this incident. A leading Malayalam actor was summoned to his office in
respect of an important matter. I happened to enter his chamber for an
emergency work, when he was ‘interrogating’ the actor. To my surprise I found
him engaging in an intellectual debate about a movie remake of a Malayalam
classic, and he pointing to the actor how many vital elements of the original
story were missed in the movie. (There were two results for the ‘interrogation’: First, the actor understood his deficiency in
that particular area of literature. Second, he admitted his omissions for which
he was called ‘to question’ and did not challenge the concerned proceedings. )
Let me not divert from the main topic.
Whenever I attended any function in Tamil Nadu,
I heard speakers quoting extensively from the book ‘Tirukkural’. Even
ministers and parliamentarians from Tamil Nadu drew from it whenever they
wanted to make a point in parliament or in many other meetings. Union Minister
of Finance from Tamil Nadu never missed a reference to Tirukkural in his budget
speeches. Though learned about the book in School I never knew much about this
great work. Thiruvallavar , an acclaimed Tamil poet wrote this book around 30 BC.
He had courageously pointed out the need for correcting certain defects in the
society of that time. Unfortunately some of those defects still lie in the
society of today and hence its contemporary relevance. Tirukkural is considered
as the most translated work perhaps after the Bible and the Koran.
I wanted
to read the Tirukkural, but the Tamil work was a little tough for me to understand. After many years, on request my friend
Alagiri procured the English translations of Tirukkural by Dr N Mahalingam and
Dr S M Diaz.
Dr N Mahalingam wrote in his introduction: “Though
the Tamil language saw the birth and growth of countless works on various
subjects, none can be said to be comparable to TIRUKKURAL. There is none to
compare with this, even in the literature of other languages”.
Dr V C Kulaindaiswamy in his foreword said:
“Tirukkural
is a treatise on the ‘Art of Living’
born out of the culture of the Tamil society. It is the contribution of a
genius that the Tamil country has produced. …..The basis for its immortal and
universal appeal is to be seen in its secular character, clarity of thought,
depth of understanding, perception of the unshifting foundations of human life,
penetrating insight into the essentials and the capacity to present them in an
extremely generalized form, avoiding carefully any particularisation’.
The work consists of 1330 epigrammatic couplets
grouped into 133 chapters, of ten couplets each. It comprises of three books:
1) The first book ‘On Virtue’ consists of 38 chapters deals with various themes
that include ‘In Praise of Rain’, ‘Asceticism’ and ‘Virtue’. The second book contains
70 chapters that deal with ‘Wealth’ covering themes such as government, polity,
economy etc. The third chapter contains 25 chapters and the main theme is ‘Love’.
Dr S M Diaz, a former Indian Police Service
officer, who is also a scholar of Bible, took pains to translate Tirukkural to English and has compared specific verses with other sacred texts like the Bible
and the Gita. He argues that the work of Tiruvallavar differs vitally in many
ways from the works of Plato and Confucius, but even more radically from the
concepts of State polity presented in Arthasasthra by Kautilya (Chanakya), and
in Prince, by Machiavelli.
Taiwanese poet Hung Ching-Yu, who writes under
the Pseudonym Yu Hsi translated Tirukkural into Mandarin. In his speech after
receiving the Tiruvallavar award at Chennai he said: ‘I acknowledge the
Tirukkural as a universal scripture.’
The concepts propounded by
Tiruvallavar in Tirukkural are based on Dharma of a universal character in time
and space. The volumes extensively deal
with many subjects. Some (out of a total of 133) are given below:
In praise of God
The glory of renunciation
On self restraint
Control of temper
On wisdom
Freedom from envy
On diplomacy
On assessment of relative strength
On friendship
On making wealth
On just rule
On choice of the right time
Efficiency in action
Some other interesting topics
Wicked friends
The enemy within
Sensitiveness to shame
In praise of the lady’s charms
Wasting of eye through wistful longing
Chennai based Central Institute of Classical Tamil (CICT), an autonomous institute under the Ministry of Human
Resources Development of Govt of India has taken efforts to provide
translations of Tirukkural in various languages. This is available in many
Indian languages. Dr Tarlochan Singh Bedi has translated the classic into
Punjabi. The Tirukkural has been translated
into Latin, German, Mandarin, French, Polish, Russian and many other foreign languages.
If you have not read it so far, please step
into any of the big libraries or buy a copy for yourself.
For English translation by Dr Diaz a, please
contact Ramanandha Adigalar Foundation, Kumaraguru College of Technology
Campus, Coimbatore -641 006 or Varthamanan Pathippagam, 40, Sarojini Street,
Chennai-17. Other versions of the book
are available in Amazon and Flipkart. But ensure that what you buy is an
authentic translation of the full work and not an abridged one.
(Views are personal.) ©
Sibichen K Mathew
(e-mail subscribers of Cyber Diary may go to
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Vijay Yess sent the following comment via FB
ReplyDelete"Good write-up. If more of us would develop such an active interest in learning the other languages and cultures within India, that could be one of the best things that can happen to India!
The "secular" notion is not universally accepted, though. There are internal references that likely allude to stock Hindu deities. For instance, there is mention of "thaamaraiyinaaL," a likely reference to the Goddess of wealth, Lakshmi.
In fact, there exists a line of thought that opines that thiruvaLLuvar followed Jainism and that that was also reflected in his work. There was a strong Jain presence in the south back then.
In any case, his division into books directly comes from the essentially Hindu framework of dharma, arththa, kaama, beyond which lies mOksha.
Insisting that the thirukkuraL was secular or agnostic might have served some political purposes, though, and helped consolidate a strong and undivided Tamil identity post-Independence, and that end perhaps justifies the means.
22 hours ago · Like
Sibichen Mathew Thanks Vijay for the very enlightening comments. Secularism and religious notions may not be necessarily contradictory. As you rightly said there were certain contextual 'purposes'. But ultimately it is for the good"
Me @ FB: Thanks Vijay for the very enlightening comments. Secularism and religious notions may not be necessarily contradictory. As you rightly said there were certain contextual 'purposes'. But ultimately it is for the good.
வாழ்க வளமுடன்
ReplyDeleteNice article on Thirukkural sir! A pleasurable read, as usual. And really amazed at the talent of the retd. CC. Hats off! While it is one thing to learn to converse in a new language (connected to your mother tongue), it is totally a different kind of a gift to be able to read/write and maintain a high level of literary discussion in another language. Simply wonderful.
ReplyDeleteMy humble suggestion is that English thirukural translations are based mostly on Parimelazhagar. I have translated it without following any one. My translation under the name Thirukkural-Translation - Explanation - A Life Skill Coaching Approach is available at Amazon.
ReplyDeleteSir, this is very wonderful article about thirukural. People would take interest to read Thirukural after reading your article. Very nicely and shortly narrated about Thirukural sir.
ReplyDeleteSir, Very wonderful article about Thirukural. People would take interest to read Thirukural after reading your blog message. Very nice and shortly narrated about the Thirukural. Excellent article sir.
ReplyDelete