Members of the Santal tribe of the present-day Jharkhand, whose ancestors were the first rebels to take arms against the exploiting British and the zamindars in the history of the Indian freedom struggle, are now honoured with a priceless gift from a literary organization in Coimbatore. The Thirukural, an unsurpassed Tamil literary work on morality and ethics for mankind across the world, has been translated into the tribal Santali language and published by the city-based literary association Nerunchi Ilakkiya Iyakkam.
Members of the Santal tribe of the present-day Jharkhand, whose ancestors were the first rebels to take arms against the exploiting British and the zamindars in the history of the Indian freedom struggle, are now honoured with a priceless gift from a literary organization in Coimbatore. The Thirukural, an unsurpassed Tamil literary work on morality and ethics for mankind across the world, has been translated into the tribal Santali language and published by the city-based literary association Nerunchi Ilakkiya Iyakkam.
“Thirukkural, being one of the peerless works of world literature, inspired the European Tamil scholars Veerama Munivar (Constantine Beschi), Francis White Ellis, G U Pope and many others. While Veeramamunivar translated the work into Latin, the other European scholars rendered it into English. Falling in the line of these scholars, it is Reverend Father V.Richard, who has translated Thirukkural into the tribal Santali language. Fr. Richard, a missionary, poet and writer, who worked for the uplift of the Santal tribe in Jharkhand, has done the valuable work due to the passion and love he has for the greatest piece of Tamil literature” says poet Muthamizhvirumbi, convener of Nerunchi Ilakkiya Iyakkam, the organization which, through its number of symposia and publications, introduced a new perspective to the readers and writers of Coimbatore to estimate classical and modern Tamil literature.
T.Jeyakumar, a late Tamil poet, who worked as a research officer of the State Bank of India in Jharkhand, took interest in the tradition and culture of the Santal tribe and suggested Fr., Richard, translate Thirukkural into Santali – the tribal language, in which the clergyman is so proficient. Despite suffering from Parkinson’s disease, Fr. Richard accomplished the task of translating Aram (Virtuous life), the first part of Thirukkural.
“Nevertheless, at a time when Fr. Richard’s work on Thirukkural came out, Jeyakumar, the poet who mooted the idea for the work, was no more” worries Muthamizhvirumbi.
“For long, it has been my dream to make Thirukkural available to the Santal people among whom my grass-root level engagement has been for more than 30 years. My friend T.Jeyakumar, who happened to visit me at Dumka, was behind me to get the book translated into Santali” remembers Fr. Richard, who is a bilingual writer with the publications to his credit that include Gangai Kuzhalosai, Kaaviya Kalileyan, Yaarukku Sontham Ivvulagam, Yaar Kristhavar? , Heart Beats, Flames of Love, Journey to the Heart, Force on Earth and I have seen God in a Man
His latest book Thirukkural – Thamizh – Santali – English also contains valuable views on Thirukkural by eminent scholars as G U Pope, Mahatma Gandhi, C Rajagopachari, K.M Munshi, Kamil Zvelabil and Justice M M Ismail.
Introduced by the Russian thinker and writer Lev Tolstoy, Thirukkural left a lasting impression in the mind of Mahatma Gandhi, who praised the work thus:
“I wish to be born as a Tamil to read Thirukkural in my mother tongue”
Admiring the Amoretti in Thirukural
In the history of love poems, few bards had described the looks of a damsel as beautifully as Thiruvalluvar did in Inbaththupal (Nature of love) - the third part in his immortal work Thirukural.
“The literary flavor in Kamaththupal is hardly found anywhere in the vast expanse of Tamil literature. However, the importance of this chapter has dwindled, for it has not been recommended in the school curriculum for its themes on love.” writes the late Kovai Gnani, a visually challenged, veteran Marxian literary critic, in his foreword to the book Kadhal Valluvan (Valluvar on Love), authored by veteran Tamil professor, researcher and writer N. Nalini Devi.
On the gaze of his lady love, the hero says thus in the 1091st couplet of Thirukural:
Her painted eyes, two glances dart
One hurts; the other heals my heart.
Gnani is held spellbound by the simile employed by Thiruvalluvar in another couplet (1110), rendered into English by Kaviyogi Shuddhanandha Bharati
As knowledge reveals past ignorance
So is the belle as love gets close.
Explaining the above-mentioned couplet, Gnani avers on the philosophical depth of Thiruvalluvar, who says that the knowledge of a person gets reduced to ignorance when he/she reaches new heights in their intellect.
Of the multi-faceted personality in the philosopher-poet, renowned professor Rama. Gurunathan says:
“In the three parts of Thirukural, Thiruvalluvar reveals a great philosopher in him in Arathupal (Virtue), a statesman in Porutpal (Wealth), but, a great love poet in Inbaththupal (Nature of love) “
Nalini Devi, a 76-year-old veteran writer, who has written a collection of human interest stories on the twenty-five chapters in Inbaththupal in her book Kadhal Valluvan, says:
“Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, researched and wrote much on man-woman attraction. But, the book Tholkaapiyam, which had been written centuries before the period of Freud and the available oldest treatise of Tamil grammar, had formulated the theories in the man-woman relationship as Agaporul (Love-theme), Kalaviyal (Chapter on the clandestine union of lovers) and Karpiyal (Conjugal fidelity)”
Nalini Devi, who hails from Madurai and worked as a professor of Tamil in Government Arts College, Pudukottai, spends her days of retirement by reading, researching and writing. She is an author of the books Rajam Krishnanin Pudhinangalil Samudhaya Maatram, Su. Samuththirathin Sirukathai Iyakkam, Marabum Pudhumayum, Padaipiyal Nokkil Thamizh Ilakkiya Varalaru, Ikakkiya Porali Es. Po – Padaipum Panmuga Paarvayum, Nenja Kadhavai Mella Thiranthu and Thamizhin Oru Paerilakkiyam Purananuru.
Nalini Devi says that though the poets of the western world including John Keats and Lord Byron sang the bliss and agonies of love beautifully, Thiruvalluvar, who lived centuries before their age, had sung on the same more beautifully than them.
“Thirukkural, being one of the peerless works of world literature, inspired the European Tamil scholars Veerama Munivar (Constantine Beschi), Francis White Ellis, G U Pope and many others. While Veeramamunivar translated the work into Latin, the other European scholars rendered it into English. Falling in the line of these scholars, it is Reverend Father V.Richard, who has translated Thirukkural into the tribal Santali language. Fr. Richard, a missionary, poet and writer, who worked for the uplift of the Santal tribe in Jharkhand, has done the valuable work due to the passion and love he has for the greatest piece of Tamil literature” says poet Muthamizhvirumbi, convener of Nerunchi Ilakkiya Iyakkam, the organization which, through its number of symposia and publications, introduced a new perspective to the readers and writers of Coimbatore to estimate classical and modern Tamil literature.
T.Jeyakumar, a late Tamil poet, who worked as a research officer of the State Bank of India in Jharkhand, took interest in the tradition and culture of the Santal tribe and suggested Fr., Richard, translate Thirukkural into Santali – the tribal language, in which the clergyman is so proficient. Despite suffering from Parkinson’s disease, Fr. Richard accomplished the task of translating Aram (Virtuous life), the first part of Thirukkural.
“Nevertheless, at a time when Fr. Richard’s work on Thirukkural came out, Jeyakumar, the poet who mooted the idea for the work, was no more” worries Muthamizhvirumbi.
“For long, it has been my dream to make Thirukkural available to the Santal people among whom my grass-root level engagement has been for more than 30 years. My friend T.Jeyakumar, who happened to visit me at Dumka, was behind me to get the book translated into Santali” remembers Fr. Richard, who is a bilingual writer with the publications to his credit that include Gangai Kuzhalosai, Kaaviya Kalileyan, Yaarukku Sontham Ivvulagam, Yaar Kristhavar? , Heart Beats, Flames of Love, Journey to the Heart, Force on Earth and I have seen God in a Man
His latest book Thirukkural – Thamizh – Santali – English also contains valuable views on Thirukkural by eminent scholars as G U Pope, Mahatma Gandhi, C Rajagopachari, K.M Munshi, Kamil Zvelabil and Justice M M Ismail.
Introduced by the Russian thinker and writer Lev Tolstoy, Thirukkural left a lasting impression in the mind of Mahatma Gandhi, who praised the work thus:
“I wish to be born as a Tamil to read Thirukkural in my mother tongue”
Admiring the Amoretti in Thirukural
In the history of love poems, few bards had described the looks of a damsel as beautifully as Thiruvalluvar did in Inbaththupal (Nature of love) - the third part in his immortal work Thirukural.
“The literary flavor in Kamaththupal is hardly found anywhere in the vast expanse of Tamil literature. However, the importance of this chapter has dwindled, for it has not been recommended in the school curriculum for its themes on love.” writes the late Kovai Gnani, a visually challenged, veteran Marxian literary critic, in his foreword to the book Kadhal Valluvan (Valluvar on Love), authored by veteran Tamil professor, researcher and writer N. Nalini Devi.
On the gaze of his lady love, the hero says thus in the 1091st couplet of Thirukural:
Her painted eyes, two glances dart
One hurts; the other heals my heart.
Gnani is held spellbound by the simile employed by Thiruvalluvar in another couplet (1110), rendered into English by Kaviyogi Shuddhanandha Bharati
As knowledge reveals past ignorance
So is the belle as love gets close.
Explaining the above-mentioned couplet, Gnani avers on the philosophical depth of Thiruvalluvar, who says that the knowledge of a person gets reduced to ignorance when he/she reaches new heights in their intellect.
Of the multi-faceted personality in the philosopher-poet, renowned professor Rama. Gurunathan says:
“In the three parts of Thirukural, Thiruvalluvar reveals a great philosopher in him in Arathupal (Virtue), a statesman in Porutpal (Wealth), but, a great love poet in Inbaththupal (Nature of love) “
Nalini Devi, a 76-year-old veteran writer, who has written a collection of human interest stories on the twenty-five chapters in Inbaththupal in her book Kadhal Valluvan, says:
“Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, researched and wrote much on man-woman attraction. But, the book Tholkaapiyam, which had been written centuries before the period of Freud and the available oldest treatise of Tamil grammar, had formulated the theories in the man-woman relationship as Agaporul (Love-theme), Kalaviyal (Chapter on the clandestine union of lovers) and Karpiyal (Conjugal fidelity)”
Nalini Devi, who hails from Madurai and worked as a professor of Tamil in Government Arts College, Pudukottai, spends her days of retirement by reading, researching and writing. She is an author of the books Rajam Krishnanin Pudhinangalil Samudhaya Maatram, Su. Samuththirathin Sirukathai Iyakkam, Marabum Pudhumayum, Padaipiyal Nokkil Thamizh Ilakkiya Varalaru, Ikakkiya Porali Es. Po – Padaipum Panmuga Paarvayum, Nenja Kadhavai Mella Thiranthu and Thamizhin Oru Paerilakkiyam Purananuru.
Nalini Devi says that though the poets of the western world including John Keats and Lord Byron sang the bliss and agonies of love beautifully, Thiruvalluvar, who lived centuries before their age, had sung on the same more beautifully than them.