"Outward purity comes through water: purity of the heart is manifested in sincerity" (298). "Those who are considerate and forbearing without letting their duty suffer the world gladly gives itself to such" (578).- "The world rests on the excellence of the good prince who knows how to change enmity into friendship" (874). "Even if they are highly placed, those who are not high-minded are not high; even if their station be humble, those who are not low-minded are yet not low" (973). "If thou dost harm to thy neighbour in the morning, harm comes of itself to thee in the afternoon" (973). "Asking the way, happiness goes of itself to him who is undaunted in spirit" (594).-"Whoever says, 'I will work for my family', before him there goes at once the goddess of good fortune, her robe well girded-up (i.e. as a fellow worker)" (1024). "Take no pleasure, even if thou shouldst win, in gambling. Even winning is as if a fish swallows the metal hook" (931). "Take no pleasure, even if thou shouldst win, in gambling. Even winning is as if a fish swallows the metal hook" (931). "Husbandmen are the axle-pin on the wagon of the world: they give support to all who, not caring for husbandry, are engaged in other work" (1032). So a natural and ethical world and life affirmation of this kind was present among the people of India at the beginning of our era, although nothing of it can be found in Brahmanism, Buddhism and Bhagavad-Gītā Hinduism. It gradually penetrates into Hindu thought through the great religious teachers who had sprung from the lower castes and lived among and felt with the people. VIII. Message to the World The Tirukkuraḷ covers a wide range of ideals. The thought of the author concerning some of the ideals is studied by Prof. A. CHIDAM-BARANATHA CHETTIAR, formerly Professor of Tamil, Annamalai University, South India. The reading is taken from a paper presented to the XXV International Congress of Orientalists, Moscow (1960), and published also in Tamil Culture, Vol. IX, 1961, pages 101 to 106. THIRUVALLUR, ONE OF the greatest of Tamil poets and thinkers who lived somewhere between the first century B.C. and the first century A.D. has given to the world his monumental work, Thirukkural |