The Sacred Kural Or The Tamil Veda Of Tiruva Uvar

The sacred Kural, a classic work treating of virtue, wealth and love in 133 chapters of ten distichs each, one of patin̲eṇkīl̲kkaṇakku.

Very few in the world outside of the Tamil country have heard the name of the poet whose work is presented here in a new English garb. And yet he is one of those seers whose message is intended not merely for their own age or country but for all time and for all mankind. Born a member of one of the depressed castes and bred up to the profession of weaving, which was his only means of livelihood till the day came for him to renounce all worldly ties, Thiruvalluvar has given to the world a work to which, in perfection of form, profundity of thought, nobleness of sentiment, and earnest-ness of moral purpose, very few books outside the grand scriptures of humanity can at all be compared. Indeed his work is eulogized by the Tamil people as the Tamil Veda, the Universal Veda, the later Veda, the Divine Book etc., etc. It is a great pity that such a treasure should have been confined for so many ages only to one single people even in Hindusthan.

In this multifaceted work, John Carman and Vasudha Narayanan clarify historical developments in South Asian religion and make important contributions to the methodology of textual interpretation and the comparative study of world religions.

An annotated bibliography of the Tamil-language books held in the collection of the British Museum. Pope and Barnett provide detailed descriptions of each book, as well as historical and cultural context for the Tamil literary tradition. This book is an essential reference work for scholars of South Asian literature and Tamil studies. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.