Sage Thiru-valluvar
"The Bard of Universal Man"
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The Book & Tributes
 

Thirukual is a book composed about 1800 years ago by Thiruvalluvar in Tamil language. It covers wide spectrum of human conduct & endeavors under three parts - virtue, wealth, and love.

Let us have a look at what they have said about the book and its author. They are arranged alphabetically.

Ariel on General Excellence

"The masterpiece of Tamil literature - one of the highest and purest expressions of human thought. That which above all is wonderful in the Kural is the fact that its author addresses himself, without regard to castes, peoples or beliefs, to the whole community of mankind; the fact that he formulates sovereign morality and absolute reason; that he proclaims in their very essence, in their eternal abstractedness, Virtue and truth; that he presents, as it were, in one group the highest laws of domestic and social life; that he is equally perfect in thought, in language and in poetry, in the austere metaphysical contemplation of the great mysteries of the Divine Nature, as in the easy and graceful analysis of the tenderest emotions of the heart."

Aurobindo on Brevity

[ Tirukkural is]  "the Gnomic Poetry, the greatest in plan, conception and force of execution, ever written in this kind, of the Tamil Saint, Tiruvalluvar."

Avvai on Brevity

"The Kural contains much in a little compass. Such is the ingenuity of its author, that he has compressed within its narrow limits all the branches of knowledge, as if he had hollowed a mustard seed, and enclosed all the waters of the seven seas in it."

Cavuniyanar General Excellence

"The short distiches which the learned poet Valluvar has composed in order that we may know the ancient right way, are sweet to the mind to meditate on; sweet to the ear to hear; and sweet to the mouth to repeat; and they moreover form a sovereign medicine to promote good and prevent evil actions."

Dr Frazer on Universal Morality

"The teaching of Thiruvalluvar is however, purely eclectic and inculcates such principles as are common to all systems of morality."

Gandhi on North India Can Benefit & No Equal

“ I wanted to learn Tamil, only to enable me to study Valluvar’s Thirukkural through his mother tongue itself…. Only a few of us know the name of Tiruvalluvar. The North Indians do not know the name of the great saint. There is no one who has given such treasure of wisdom like him.”

Gandhi on Universal Morality

"It is a text-book of indispensable authority on moral life. The maxims of Valluvar has touched my soul."

Grover on Influence on Tamil People

"The Kural'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."

- Charles E. Gover

Sir Grant on Thiruvalluvar & Aristotle

“Humility, charity and forgiveness of injuries are not described by Aristotle. Now these three are everywhere forcibly inculcated by this Tamil Moralist – Thiruvalluvar.”

Dr. Graul on Beauty of the Original Composition

"No translation can convey an idea of its (Thirukkural's) charming effect. It is truly an apple of gold in the network of silver."

Dr Hopkins on Universal Ethics

"The Kural, on the other hand all the time stays at the level of general principles, i.e., what may be called a mandatory ethics."

Dr Hussain on Universal Morality & Thirukural

"Thirukkural was a treasure house of worldly knowledge, ethical guidance and spiritual wisdom. In the majority of its 1330 couplets even where the theme was common place the treatment was artistic and the play of sentiment, image and sound had a perennial interest."

Dr Hussain on Thiruvlluvar

"Thiruvalluvar was one of the greatest product of Indian culture. The saint's idealism, his philosophy, humane practical sense and universal ethical code had mingled into main stream of Indian culture, and had become part of the common culture heritage and philosophers of India."

Kulandaiswamy on General Excellence

"Tiruvalluvar lays down guidelines for an individual who will be the basic component of any social, political and economic system. These systems will change and will continue to change. Valluvar, therefore, concentrates on the individual, the molecule, and deals with him. He looks at the individual as a king, as a citizen, as the head of a family, as a father, as a son, as an ascetic, as a minister and defines for him, in each position, in each state a way of life, a code of conduct that would generally be valid, irrespective of the political or economic system that may exist."

- V C Kulandaiswamy, (born 1929), educationist, Vice Chancellor of Anna University (1981-1990), Chairman of Tamil Virtual University.

Rev. Dr Lazarus on Language

"He (Thiruvalluvar) throws the purity of Bunyan's English completely into the shade. No known Tamil work can even approach the purity of Kural. It is a standing rebuke to the modern Tamil. Thiruvalluvar has clearly proved the richness, melody and power of his mother tongue."

- Rev. Dr. J. Lazarus, a missionary himself, on Tirukkural, 1949

Rev. Dr. Lazarus on Product of Moral Soil

"The Kural cannot be improved nor its plan made more perfect. It is a perfect mosaic in itself. A slight change in the size, shape or color of a single stone would mar the beauty of the whole. It is refreshing to think that a Nation, which has produced so great a man and so unique a work, cannot be a hopeless despicable race. The morality he preached could not have grown except out of an essentially moral soil." 

Dr Macdonell on Universal Moralty

"The poet (Thiruvalluvar) in fact, stands above all races, caste and sects inculcating a general human morality and worldly wisdom." .

Dr Macdonell on Poetic Beauty

"Not only the ethical content of the book but skill with which the author gives his aphorisms, a poetical setting in a difficult metre have evoked admiration."

- Arthur Anthony Macdonell (1854 - 1930), 7th of Lochgarry, Noteded Sanskrit scholar, Became Boden Professor of Sanskrit in 1899 at Oxford

Merriam Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature on General Excellence

"Sacred Couplets is considered a masterpiece of human thought, compared in India and abroad to the Bible, John Milton's Paradise Lost, and the works of Plato. .........The Thirukkural is an all inclusive moral guide whose foremost moral imperatives are not to kill and to tell the truth"

Dr Munshi on General Excellence

"In its essence, Tirukkural is a treatise par excellence on the art of living. Tiruvalluvar, the author, diagnoses the intricacies of human nature with such penetrating insight, perfect mastery and consummate skill absorbing the most subtle concepts of love and modern psychology, that one is left wondering at his sweep and depth. His prescriptions, leavened by godliness, ethics, morality and humanness are sagacious and practical to the core. they cut across castes,  creeds, climes and ages and have freshness which makes one fuel as if they  are meant for the present times."

- Dr. K.M. Munshi

Muthukumar on Better Late than Never

"Thirukural : A 2000 year old Tamil Classic on life, virtue, money and love, written by sage Thiruvalluvar. I was forced to mug Thirukural during my school days. Guess its time re-discovering its value. This is a must read."

Dr Natarajan on the Message

"In Thirukkural, one can find a kaleidoscopic wisdom that will inspire the people to lead a simple life with high thinking."

Dr Noelle on Universal Morality & Humanity

"This work proclaims the basic principles for the moral and material life of the people. The aphorisms about 'loving-kindness' reveal the humane approach of the poet to the problems of life.

The lofty ideals that are enshrined in this didactic work transcends the barriers of race, creed, place and time."

Dr Noelle on Poetic Beauty

"Besides, this universal and cosmopolitan outlook, Thirukkural shines supreme in its poetic excellences."

Rev. Dr. Pope on Influence on Tamil People

"Thiruvalluvar's poem is thus by no means a long one; though in value it far outweighs the whole of the remaining Tamil literature, and is one of the select number of great work which have entered into the very soul of a whole people, and which can never die."

Rev. Dr. Pope on Transmission of Book Over the Age

"Complete in itself, the sole work of its author has come down the esteem of ages absolutely uninjured, hardly a single various reading of any importance being found."

- Rev. Dr. G.U. Pope, Christian Missionary & Educationist, First to Translate full Thirukural into English, 1886

Rev. Percival on Brevity

- Rev. P. Percival

Pillai on Transmission of Book Over the Ages

"The work exists or is extant as a whole, unaltered by schematics and unimpaired or untampered with by copyists in the procession of ages."

- M.S.P. Pillai, 1999

Robinson on General Excellence

"What is the use of great length, when the short work of Valluvar alone is enough to edify the world? It contains all things, and there is nothing which it does not contain."

Schweitzer on General Excellence

“There hardly exists in the literature of the world a collection of maxims in which we find such lofty wisdom.”

Schweitzer on World Views of Jesus & Thirunalluvar

"World and Life Negation are found in the thought of Jesus in so far as he did not assume that the Kingdom of God would be realized in this natural world. He expected that this natural world would very speedily come to an end and be superseded by a super-natural world in which all that is imperfect and evil would be overcome by the power of God". On the contrary, Valluvar believed that in this very natural world, the liberated man can find his heaven and said that perfect bliss could be attained by an individual in this natural world itself and it is unnecessary to wait indefinitely for the transformation of the world in order to transform oneself. Thus he took life and world affirmation to a loftier plane than Christ did."

- Dr. Albert Schweitzer, Nobel Laureate,  in his 'Indian thought and its Development' (Page 16)

Sane Guruji on Thiruvalluvar

"Great thinkers belong to the World. Thiruvalluvar belongs not only to Tamilnadu but also to the Whole of India, nay to the whole world. He wrote for the benefit of the whole mankind."

Subramania Bharati on Thiruvalluvar

"Tamil Nadu gave unto the World Valluvar
And won thereby great reknown."

Dr Shah on Universal Morality

"They (Kural couplets) are not limited to the people of any one nation, or of any one language or of any one period but they will remain alive and fresh as long as the human race survives."

- Dr. Ramanial C. Shah

Subbaraman on Universal Morality

"Thirukkural, the Tamil classic is universal in its outlook, which has no barriers of caste, creed, language and country. Hence, it has been acclaimed as the VEDA of mankind."

Shankaracharya of Kanchi on Sanskrit & Tamil & Greatness

"I thought about the question, which is superior, Sanskrit or Tamil. Sanskrit and Tamil are equal in their greatness. We cannot say that the one is superior to the other. The reason is that the Vedas are in Sanskrit and now in Tamil we have the Kural. If there were nothing equal to the Vedas in Tamil, Sanskrit should have been said to be superior. Now the Kural is present in Tamil as the equal of the Vedas. Both languages -- Sanskrit and Tamil are now seen to be equally great."

- Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati; Shankaracharya of Kanchi

Dr Temple on Spread in the World & General Excellenve

"In its own land, the Kural owes its popularity as much to the beauty of its versification as to its morality, but it is in its breadth of view and its speaking that to the heart of men, must make it a favourite work with the world at large."

Winternitz on Spread in the World & General Excellence

“Thiruvalluvar’s Kural is one of the gems of the world literature.  He stands above all races, castes, and sects, and what he teaches is a general human morality and wisdom.  No wonder, that the Kural has been read, studied and highly praised in the land of its origin for centuries, but also found many admirers in the west, ever since it has become known.”

Fr. White on Universal Morality

"The author of the Kural was a kindly, liberal-minded man and his poetry is a kind of synthesis of the best moral teachings of his age."

Zvelebil on Spread in the World

“Thirukkural is a contribution of the Tamil creative genius to the world cultural treasure and should be familiar to the whole world and admired and beloved by all in the same way as the poems of Homer, the dramas of Shakespeare, the pictures of Rembrandt, the cathedrals of France and the sculptures of Greece”

A Husband & His Wife in Foreground - View from the Mainland,
Thiruvalluvar Memorial (133 Feet, 7000 Tonnes), Kanyakumari, India
Credit: Priya20, Flickr

References