Contents · 5 sections · 3 min
Key Ideas
As A is first of letters, so the Primal God is first of the world (1).
Without rain, there is no virtue and no world (chapter 2).
Non-killing is the highest virtue; truthfulness the next (323).
Punish those who harm you by doing them good, and forget (314).
All are equal by birth; it is conduct that makes the difference (972).
Love — the third book — is treated as a human good in its own right.
The Tirukkuṟaḷ (“sacred couplets”), often simply the Kuṟaḷ, is a classic of Tamil literature and ethics, attributed to Tiruvaḷḷuvar and composed probably in the fifth century CE (estimates range widely). It consists of 1,330 couplets (kuṟaḷ), each in the short kuṟaḷ veṇpā metre of seven words, arranged in 133 chapters of ten, and divided into three books corresponding to three of the four classical aims of life: virtue (aṟam, Sanskrit dharma), wealth (poruḷ, artha) and love (inbam, kāma). The fourth aim, liberation, is deliberately omitted: the Kuṟaḷ is a guide to life in this world. Its ethic is strikingly universal: it names no god, sect or caste, and addresses every human being. Revered as the “Tamil Veda” (Tamil Maṟai) and the “universal scripture” (Ulaga Podhu Maṟai), it has been translated into some forty languages and quoted by Tolstoy, Gandhi and countless others.
Book One: Virtue
The first book opens with praise of God — “As the letter A is the first of all letters, so the Primal God is the first of the world” (1) — then of rain, without which there is no virtue and no world (chapter 2), and of the greatness of ascetics. It goes on to the virtues of domestic life — the good wife, children, love, hospitality, sweet speech, gratitude, impartiality, self-control, good conduct, not coveting another’s wife, patience, not envying, not slandering, giving, fame — and of renunciation: kindness, not eating meat, truthfulness, not being angry, not harming, not killing, impermanence, renunciation, knowledge of truth and the destruction of desire.
Some of its most famous couplets:
What is the use of learning, if one does not worship the feet of the One who is pure knowledge? (2) The way to punish those who do you evil is to shame them by returning good, and forgetting both. (314) Non-killing is the supreme virtue; killing brings every other sin in its train. (321) How can one who eats the flesh of another to fatten his own be kind? (251) Speaking harsh words when sweet ones are available is like plucking unripe fruit when ripe fruit is at hand. (100)
Book Two: Wealth
The second and longest book treats polity and practical life: the qualities of a king, learning, listening, wisdom, avoiding faults, choosing advisers, choosing the right time and place, the army, friendship, ministers, envoys, fortresses, wealth, agriculture, poverty, begging and the dignity of labour. It covers similar ground to the The Arthaśāstra but with a stronger ethical emphasis: the king must be just, accessible and merciful; “the sceptre of a just king is the support of the Vedas and dharma” (543). Its maxims on friendship and learning are among the most quoted:
Learning is the true imperishable wealth; other things are not wealth. (400) To laugh is not why one makes friends; it is to rebuke a friend who goes astray. (784) Agriculture is the axle of the world: all others revolve around the ploughman. (1032) All are equal at birth; distinctions arise from the quality of one’s deeds. (972)
Book Three: Love
The third book, on love, is a sequence of dramatic monologues in the tradition of classical Tamil love poetry (akam), voiced by the lover, the beloved and their confidantes, through the stages of courtship, secret love, separation and reunion in marriage. It is tender, witty and sensuous:
Her eyes look at me; I look at her; then she looks down — and waters the plant of love. (1093) Love’s pleasure lies in the quarrel; the pleasure of the quarrel lies in the making up. (1330 — the last couplet of the book)
Significance
The Kuṟaḷ has been called the most translated book of India after the Bhagavad Gītā. In Tamil Nadu its couplets are displayed in buses and government offices and taught to every schoolchild; a statue of its author stands at the southern tip of India. Its secular, caste-free ethic made it central to the Dravidian movement and to modern Tamil identity. Tolstoy quoted chapter 32 (“not doing harm”) to Gandhi in 1908, and Gandhi learned Tamil partly to read it in the original.
In conversation
Its answer to an enemy is Tamil India’s equivalent of “turn the other cheek”: punish those who harm you by doing them good — and forgetting.
Curiosities
did you know?- Each couplet has exactly seven words — four in the first line, three in the second.
- It deliberately omits the fourth aim of life, mokṣa (liberation) — dealing only with life in this world.
- Translated into at least 40 languages; the first European translation was in Latin by the Jesuit Constanzo Beschi (1730).
Questions to Argue About
debate club →- Can ethics be written in seven-word lines?
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