Sage Thiru-valluvar
"The Bard of Universal Man"
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Chapter - 2 : The Excellence of Rain
 

Introductory Note

It seems strange that the introductory chapter on God is followed by one rain. This is usual in Tamil compositions; the idea being that neither virtue, nor wealth or pleasure would exist without rain.

This connection is seen in Bhagvat Gita as well as the Bible:

“All things which have life are produced from bread which they eat, bread is produced from rain; rain from divine worship and divine worship from good works.” – Bhagvat Gita III.9

“Nevertheless He left not Himself without a witness in that He did good, and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful season, filling our hearts with food and gladness” – The Bible, Acts XIV.17.

Translation(s)

The world maintains its course through life given by unfailing rain. Thus rain is known as true ambrosial food of all that lives.

“As by abundant rain the world subsists,
Life’s sole elixir in this fluid know.”
 – rendering by F.W. Ellis

Explanation

In Thiru-valluvar’s times, rain-fed agricultural was the main stay of life and society. Since rainy season from October to December brought (and now also brings) every year without human intervention clouds giving rain, he calls it “unfailing”.  

Reverend G.U. Pope lived ….  years in India spreading the message of Jesus Christ. His translation published in 1886, was the first translation into English of the complete Thirukural. He remarks in his notes:
“Anyone who has seen an Indian district suffering from drought and noted the instantaneous change in all living things when the long-expected rain has fallen, will understand the poet’s feeling: ‘rain is the elixir of immortality to the whole earth.’”

Translation(s)

The rain makes pleasant food to grow for those who eat, and supplies the thirst-quenching draught (water from well or river kept in a container) as food itself.

Explanation

Rain satisfies hunger by grouping food and quenches thirst as water inside wells or rivers.

Translation(s)

If clouds that promise rain deceive and remain in the sky; famine, sore torment, stalks over earth’s plain surrounded by expanse of water (oceans).

Explanation

Failure of clouds to shower rain caused famine which was a sore torment. Famines have afflicted people of Tamil Nadu throughout the ages, but are documented only in recent centuries. The severest documented famine occurred in ……

Rev. G.U. Pope recalls the great famine, which occurred when he was in Tamil Nadu, India, in following words:

“During the disastrous drought in 1880, each day heavy clouds collected and hung over the Maisur province, but strong winds from the west arose and bore them away in the director of the sea, leaving the broad fields dry and parched, and abandoning multitudes to misery and death by famine. Those who have seen something like this can understand the force of this couplet.”

This sad waste of rain is used as simile in Naladiyar:

“While in the unripened ear the golden grain is parched,
 The heavens with lightings gleaming pour their treasures forth
Upon the sea! When silly men gain ample wealth,
So are their liberal gifts bestowed!”
– Naladiyar, 269.

Shakespeare writes in ‘As you like it’:
 “Thou mak’st a testament,
As worldlings do, giving thy sum of more
To that which had too much”

Translation(s)

If clouds fail to pour their wealth of water on earth, the ploughmen’s plough teams no more with sturdy oxens.

Explanation

After the first rain showers, the farmer ploughed the field and planted seed. In absence of rain shower he could not do so.

Is rice also cultivated the above mentioned way?

Translation(s)

It is rain that does it all: It spreads ruin; then supplies timely aid, as in happy days before, it bids the ruined rise.

Explanation

Rain spreads ruin in many ways - by not arriving at all, or arriving too early, or arriving too late. Then by arriving at least in the next annual season, it gives life-saving aid by making ruined crop (& people) rise again.

Rev. G U Pope, the first to translate complete Thirukural into English, remarks in his notes that this verse refers to “the destructive violence of tropical storms, and the life-giving effects of the first burst of monsoon in India.” His interpretation is also plausible.

Translation(s)

If no drops of rain are shed from the clouds, it is rare to see green herb lift up its head.

Explanation

In Thiru-valluvar’s age, most of the agriculture was dependent on rain. Irrigation through canals or wells was either not widespread or was only a supplement to the rains.

Translation(s)

If clouds restrain their gifts and grant no rain, the treasures fall in oceans wide domain.

Explanation

If rain fails to come then crop also fail. This affects the general economy and prosperity. This was true of India as whole even in 20th century. In the years agricultural production grew well, industrial production also grew.

So much was the importance of rains, that it is used as a simile by Thiru-valluvar later in this composition. For example, he says that just as heavens / clouds give rain to human kind without taking anything as recompense, so also rich people should share wealth with others (verse…).

In another couplet a wife is feeling that her husband does not love her any more since he has not sent any message to her from far away land, where he has gone. She gives the simile of rain and says that lovers shower love on each other like clouds shower rain on the earth (verse….).

Translation(s)

If heaven grow dry, the men on earth will no more adore the heavenly ones with feast and offering.

Explanation

Thiru-valluvar says very realistically - and his realism is unmatched, I think - that if economy weakens, people’s adherence to religious rituals also reduces.

Translation(s)

If heavens cease to dispense its watery treasures, throughout the wide world cease gifts and deeds of penitence.

Explanation

People doing penance reduce as householders do not support them with donations or “daan.”

Translation(s)

When water fails, functions of nature cease, you can say. Thus when rain fails, no man can walk in “duty’s ordered way.”

Explanation

When people are reduced to extreme condition of need; they are unable to, or do not, follow rules of conduct. Thus social order begins to break down.

Summary Note

Rain is the cause of the world going in its accustomed way. It is the cause of continued existence of virtue, wealth and pleasure on earth. This is reason for a chapter on “Rain” immediately after that on God.

Me and Thiruvalluvar's Feet'
Thiruvalluvar Memorial (133 Feet, 7000 Tonnes), Kanyakumari,India
Credit: Veganpixel, Flickr

References