Tiruvaḷḷuvar in Three Ideas
the essentialsVirtue, wealth, love
The Kuṟaḷ is divided into aṟam (virtue), poruḷ (wealth and polity) and inbam (love) — the whole of life, but not liberation.
Ethics for all
No caste, no sect, no god named — an ethic addressed to every human being.
Return good for evil
“The way to punish those who harm you is to shame them with kindness, and forget.”
Tiruvaḷḷuvar (“the sacred Vaḷḷuvar”) is the Tamil poet and moral philosopher to whom is attributed the The Tirukkuṟaḷ, the most celebrated work of Tamil literature and one of the great ethical texts of the world. Almost nothing is known of his life; scholars date the Kuṟaḷ anywhere from the third century BCE to the sixth century CE, most commonly around 450–500 CE. Legends make him a weaver of Mylapore (now in Chennai), married to a devoted wife, Vāsuki; a famous story says that when he submitted his work to the scholars of the Madurai academy (Saṅgam), the plank on which they sat shrank to hold only his book.
His religious identity is unknown and disputed — the Kuṟaḷ invokes God (“as A is the first of all letters, so the Primal God is the first of the world”) but names no deity, sect or caste. Jains claim him for his ethic of non-violence and vegetarianism; Śaivas, Vaiṣṇavas, Buddhists and even Christians have claimed him too. Its universality — an ethic addressed to all human beings, without reference to caste — has made the Kuṟaḷ the moral scripture of Tamil identity and, through translations into some forty languages, a classic of world literature. In 1976 a memorial, Valluvar Kottam, was built in Chennai, and in 2000 a 133-foot statue was erected on a rock off Kanyakumari.
Curiosities
did you know?- A 133-foot statue of Tiruvaḷḷuvar stands on a rock off Kanyakumari, at the southern tip of India — 133 feet for the Kuṟaḷ’s 133 chapters.
- Tolstoy read a German translation of the Kuṟaḷ and quoted it to Gandhi in his ‘Letter to a Hindu’ (1908).
- Jains, Śaivas, Vaiṣṇavas, Buddhists and Christians have all claimed him.
Questions to Argue About
debate club →- Can an ethical code be universal if it comes from one culture?
Explore Next
related by shared connectionsThe Arthaśāstra
Kauṭilya’s treatise on statecraft — 15 books on kingship, administration, economy, law, espionage, diplomacy and war. Lost for centuries and rediscovered in 1905, it is the most comprehensive ancient manual of government in any civilisation.
The Manusmṛti
The most famous of the Hindu law books — a treatise on dharma covering creation, the four classes, the stages of life, the duties of kings, marriage, inheritance, crime and penance. Revered for two millennia as the code of Hindu society, and condemned in modern times as the charter of caste and of women’s subordination.
The Analects
The collected sayings and conversations of Confucius and his disciples — the most influential book in East Asian history.
Confucianism
The ethical and political tradition founded on Confucius’s teaching — humaneness, ritual, filial piety, learning and government by virtue — the backbone of Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese civilization.
Master and Slave Morality
Nietzsche’s genealogy — “good/bad” was the self-affirmation of nobles; “good/evil” was invented by the resentful weak to revenge themselves on the strong.
Saṅgam Poetry
The oldest Tamil literature (c. 300 BCE–300 CE) — 2,381 poems by 473 poets, on love (akam) and war (puṟam), in which each landscape — mountain, forest, field, seashore, desert — carries a mood of love. One of the great classical literatures of the world.