Almost nothing certain is known about Thiruvalluvar, except that he wrote the Tirukkural, the most beloved work in the Tamil language. Scholars date it anywhere between about 300 BCE and the 5th century CE; many favour the later end. Traditions about his life, that he was a weaver in Mylapore, for instance, came much later. Jains, Hindus, Buddhists and others have all claimed him, and the Kural itself names no religion, which may be why it speaks to everyone.
The 133-foot Thiruvalluvar statue at Kanyakumari, unveiled in 2000; photo CC0. No likeness of him from his own time survives.
The Tirukkural
The Kural is 1,330 short couplets, each of two lines, arranged in 133 chapters of ten. It has three books:
Porul (wealth) — good government, friendship, education, statecraft and work
Inbam (love) — the joys and pains of love between partners
It is practical, secular and compressed: wisdom for householders and rulers rather than for renunciants. It has been translated into dozens of languages, including English by the missionary G. U. Pope in 1886. Read more on Sangam Literature.
From Valluvar to Tolstoy to Gandhi
In 1908 Leo Tolstoy wrote A Letter to a Hindu arguing for nonviolent resistance to British rule, and quoted the Kural’s chapter on not doing harm:
“The punishment of evil doers consists in making them feel ashamed of themselves by doing them a great kindness.”Tirukkural 314, as quoted by Tolstoy in A Letter to a Hindu (1908)
A young lawyer in South Africa read the letter, wrote to Tolstoy and published it with his own preface: Gandhi. A Tamil couplet perhaps fifteen centuries old had reached the man who would turn its idea into a mass movement.
Tamil Nadu celebrates Thiruvalluvar Day each January, and his couplets are displayed in buses and government offices across the state.
How the Kural Thinks
The order of the three books is itself an argument: virtue first, then wealth and power, then love. Wealth and pleasure are not condemned, but they rest on character, and without it they turn sour. A few of its best-known teachings, in substance:
Speech. Using harsh words when kind ones are available is like picking unripe fruit when ripe fruit hangs on the same tree (Kural 100).
Gratitude. Help given at the right moment, however small, is worth more than the whole world (Kural 102).
The household. Of all who strive for the good, the one who lives the family life well comes first (Kural 47). Unusually for an ancient Indian text, the Kural honours the householder at least as much as the renouncer.
Power. A ruler who keeps no advisers bold enough to rebuke him will fall even without an enemy (Kural 448).
Things People Often Get Wrong
“It is a Hindu (or Jain) scripture.” The Kural names no god of any sect; its first couplet compares God to the letter A, first of all letters. That neutrality is why so many traditions claim it.
“It is only about morals.” A third of it is about money, government and friendship, and the last 250 couplets are love poetry, often skipped in selections.
The statue’s height is symbolic: 133 feet for the 133 chapters, standing on a 38-foot pedestal for the 38 chapters of the book on virtue.
Living It
Tamil Nadu displays a couplet a day on its buses, and that is the right way to read the Kural: one couplet, carried through the day. Try the chapters on sweet words (10), gratitude (11), patience (16) and not giving in to anger (31) first.
Check Yourself
Three quick questions on Thiruvalluvar. The wrong answers describe other thinkers on Darshniks.
The 133-foot Thiruvalluvar statue at Kanyakumari, unveiled in 2000; photo CC0. No likeness of him from his own time survives.
