About the Book
A celebrated work by the greatest poet of classical Tamil literature
Tiruvalluvar probably lived and wrote between the second century BC and the eighth century AD though his dates have not been conclusively established. The work by which he is known, the Kural, comprises 1,330 couplets and is divided into three sections—Virtue, Wealth and Love—and is based on the first three of the four supreme aims prescribed by Hindu tradition: dharma (virtue), artha (wealth), kama (love) and moksha (salvation). Taken together, the three books of the Kural inform, criticize and teach the reader, in brilliantly styled and pithy verse, about life, love and the ways of the world.
Translated and edited with an introduction by P.S. Sundaram.
About the Author P.S. Sundaram, who took his Master’s degree in English Language and Literature from Madras University (1930) and, later, from Oxford (1934), had a long and distinguished career as a professor of English at Lahore, Cuttack, Bareilly and Jaipur. He is the author of two books on R.K. Narayan and has translated an array of Tamil classics into English.
In addition to the present work, he has translated into English selected poems of Subramania Bharati, Tiruvalluvar’s Kural, Andal’s Thriuppavai and Nachchiyar Thriumozhi.