Interpreting Thirukkural

The Thirukkural can be said as one of the “cream of the Tamil books”. Its richness in terms of its poetry, the linguistic nature and concepts are of “par excellence” to any other philosophical books written by mankind, throughout the world.

A book of this status, cannot be wholly translated as the beauty of the linguistic nature and the concepts will differ, and the essence will be lost. This can be said for most of all the classical literature we have. Thus only an explanation can be provided.

Unfortunately, this explanation is needed for both the Tamil and Non Tamil speaking and reading masses. There is a whole group of people of Tamil origin out there who can read and speak Tamil, but will not be able to “understand what the Thirukkural” is trying to say.

By just giving the interpretation, one does not understand why the Thirukkural is “so rich and great”. The values are universal and many great classical books have provided the same concepts to us. Thus the difference is the “choice of words used and how it is played linguistically”. This is what sets the “Thirukkutral” apart from other books both in the Tamil language and in other languages.

Rather by just informing that “plants needs water to grow”, one needs to explain why plants need the water, or how the water keeps the plant alive. This is where the intellectual beauty of Thirukkural comes out.

A small child know that “plants need water to grow”; but the question is for how long are the Tamils going to behave like “children” even within their own literature. We need to tell not only the Tamil people, but also to the whole world of “why the plants need the water, or how the water keeps the plant alive”.

To do this we must explain in detail of “how theThirukkural is written and how one comes to the explanation of the meaning. How the words are chosen, and how they are coined to make us reach the conclusion”.

For this a good command of the Tamil language and about the book is necessary. For this, we are lucky to have many scholars with this knowledge, but translating into English has been the drawback. And it is for these people who do not have a “good understanding of Tamil” and are only English educated that needs these explanations.

The Tamil scholars know this, the others do not. It is to them, these explanations are dedicated.