Being an ardent fan of A.R.Rahman it was not unexpected on my part to start listening to his Tamil compositions. Eventually I started taking special interest into the amazingly rhythmic sentences of Tamil and continued digging into its very beautiful curvy fonts. While grokking hard into the lyrics of Mayiliragae, with the help of my Tamil friends, one day I came across the word ‘Tiruvalluvar’. Being a 100% Non-Tamilian, at the outset, I didn’t understand whether this word refers to a man, a place, a dish, a society or a philosophy. But no problem, there is Wikipedia to help me out. After putting the word in search box, the result that came out was both shocking and surprising. The first sentence that came out was ‘Oh my God, this is the man!’ Which man? Well, this leads us to take a journey to the most visited destination of Tamil Nadu – Kanyakumari. Who ever have visited Vivekananda Rock and who have not, all know it very well that just at the adjacent rock of the famous Memorial, there stands a stupendous statue of a sage-like man. Yes, He is Tiruvalluvar – the great Tamil poet-saint. My rendezvous with his legendary creation was quite unlikely, but I am happy that it happened.
Slowly I came to learn some more interesting facts about him that fascinated me. A weaver by profession, following an ascetic lifestyle and believed to have lived during the 1st millennium, the legendary Tiruvalluvar gifted the society - ‘Thirukkural’, one of the best ethical works ever written in Tamil language. When there is dispute among the historians over his place of birth, there is no confusion that he finds a firm and irreplaceable place in the hearts of Tamilians.
Containing 1330 couplets divided into 133 chapters of 10 couplets each, Thirukkural describes the lessons on man’s duties, material life and love life. Considered as the gospel of Tamil society, Thirukkural has not lost its fragrance even after two millennia.
With my this little write-up, if I have been able to seed interest in you, please click the link below to know more about Tiruvalluvar and his poetic creation ‘Thirukkural’ -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiruvalluvar
Containing 1330 couplets divided into 133 chapters of 10 couplets each, Thirukkural describes the lessons on man’s duties, material life and love life. Considered as the gospel of Tamil society, Thirukkural has not lost its fragrance even after two millennia.
With my this little write-up, if I have been able to seed interest in you, please click the link below to know more about Tiruvalluvar and his poetic creation ‘Thirukkural’ -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiruvalluvar
No comments:
Post a Comment