Thirukkural - A Treasure of Wisdom

" I wanted to learn Tamil only to enable me to study Valluvar's Thirukkural through his mother tongue itself. Only a few us know the name of Thiruvalluvar.There is none who has given such a treasure of wisdom like him" - M.K.Gandhi. "There hardly exists in the literature of the world a collection of maxims in which we find such lofty wisom" - 1952 Nobel Price winner Albert Schwetzer Thirukkural is a universal and secular wisdom.

Monday, January 23, 2006

Thirukkural - A personal Dialog

The Dialog( or Dialogue) is not only an exchange of ideas and views, but also forms the basis for one's evolution of thoughts.

All the 1330 Thirukkurals are structured as 'Pa' ( meaning a musical poem) with 2 short lines. This 'Pa' structure is very condusive for memorizing. Each Thirukkural is also designed as a Dialog(Seppalosai ). Let me illustrate this with some examples:

" What will happen if the Rain fails to the world, sorrounded by oceans? " is the question.

"Hunger will strike the stomach " comes the reply !

Both this question and answer are wrapped in the following Thirukkural.

Should Rain fail, hunger will rack
The world with wide oceans. [ Rain 2 : 3 ]
( Vinninru poippin virineer viyan ulagaththu
unninru udatrum pasi )


Let us take one more example from 3rd theme 'Ascetics'.

"The great do the impossible. The Mean ? " is the question.
" The Mean cannot" comes the reply
[ Ascetics 3 : 6 ]

You can take any Thirukkural and you will see this fascinating Dialog pattern.


Love and Peace.

Karu.Malar Selvan

posted by Yazhini @ 8:12 AM