[Our previous series of articles on valluvar had created a great deal of interest among our readers, and we now publish a series of three articles by A.N.Kandasamy on what he regards as unique in Valluvar. The second and third installments of this series will be publsihed in the coming weeks. – EDITOR, Tribune]
The final impression that scholars and writers who write on Valluvar leave in the minds of their readers is that he is either an outstanding moralist of the stoic-philosopher type or a didactic poet on ethics. But to me this is a grossly wrong estimation of one of the great thinkers of the world, a secular philosopher with a unique outlook in many ways, not just an author of a few hundreds of ethical aphorisms, but how is it that this well-unintentioned, in fact adolatary under-estimation has gained such currency among writers and readers as well? Perhaps the fact that the early translators of Kural were Christian missionaries like the Rev.G.U.Pope and Rev.W.H.Drew has something to do with it.
It is the opening section of Thirukural ARAM or VIRTUE («Èõ) that has a appealed to these gentlemen as the cream of Valluvar’s thought. The Second and Third sections deal with Politics and Love respectively and the vocation of these translators must have had a limiting influence on their appreciation of these sections.