Poetry Codex

Indian

Tiruvalluvar

traditionally c. 1st century BC – 5th century AD

Tiruvalluvar is the traditional name of the Tamil poet-sage who composed the Tirukkural (the ‘Sacred Kural’), and almost nothing is securely known of his life; scholars have placed him anywhere between the first century BC and about the fifth century AD.

The Tirukkural consists of 1,330 couplets in 133 chapters of ten, arranged in three books on Virtue, Wealth and Love. It is given here, chapter by chapter, in G. U. Pope’s English verse translation of 1886.

Poems (36)

  1. Chapter 2: The Excellence of Rain
  2. Chapter 13: The Possession of Self-Restraint
  3. Chapter 19: Not Backbiting
  4. Chapter 20: The Not Speaking Profitless Words
  5. Chapter 23: Giving
  6. Chapter 24: Renown
  7. Chapter 27: Penance
  8. Chapter 29: The Absence of Fraud
  9. Chapter 30: Veracity
  10. Chapter 32: Not Doing Evil
  11. Chapter 46: Avoiding Mean Associations
  12. Chapter 49: Knowing the Fitting Time
  13. Chapter 53: Cherishing One's Kindred
  14. Chapter 72: The Knowledge of the Council Chamber
  15. Chapter 74: The Land
  16. Chapter 76: Way of Accumulating Wealth
  17. Chapter 77: The Excellence of an Army
  18. Chapter 78: Military Spirit
  19. Chapter 83: Unreal Friendship
  20. Chapter 88: Knowing the Quality of Hate
  21. Chapter 89: Enmity Within
  22. Chapter 93: Not Drinking Palm-Wine
  23. Chapter 94: Gaming
  24. Chapter 95: Medicine
  25. Chapter 96: Nobility
  26. Chapter 97: Honour
  27. Chapter 100: Courtesy
  28. Chapter 101: Wealth Without Benefaction
  29. Chapter 105: Poverty
  30. Chapter 106: Mendicancy
  31. Chapter 108: Baseness
  32. Chapter 110: Recognition of the Signs (of Mutual Love)
  33. Chapter 116: Separation Unendurable
  34. Chapter 118: Eyes Consumed with Grief
  35. Chapter 122: The Visions of the Night
  36. Chapter 124: Wasting Away

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