Made the first ever translation of the Kural text into English in a chapter titled 'Extracts from the Teroo-Vaulaver Kuddul, or, The Ocean of Wisdom' in his book Specimens of Hindoo Literature[3]
Translated 120 couplets in all—69 of them in verse and 51 in prose. Second edition published by University of Madras Press in 1955 as Tirukkural Ellis Commentary
Published the 1904 work of K. Vadivelu Chettiar with English renderings.[4] Republished in 1972–1980 in Madurai as Kural in English with Tamil Text and Parimelazhakar Commentary (3 parts). Recent edition published in 2015 in 2 volumes.
N. E. Kindersley, the first ever English translator of the KuralV. V. S. Aiyar, the first native scholar who made a complete translation of the Kural into English
Following the translation of the Kural text into Latin by Constantius Joseph Beschi in 1730,[10]Nathaniel Edward Kindersley attempted the first ever English translation of the Kural text in 1794, translating select couplets in verse. Francis Whyte Ellis attempted the second English translation, who translated only 120 of the 1330 couplets of the Kural text—69 in verse and 51 in prose.[11][12][13][14] In 1840, William Henry Drew translated the first book of the Tirukkural in prose. In 1852, he partially completed the second book, too, in prose. Along with his own English prose translation, his publication contained the original Tamil text, the Tamil commentary by Parimelazhagar and Ramanuja Kavirayar's amplification of the commentary. He thus covered chapters 1 through 63, translating 630 couplets.[10]John Lazarus, a native missionary, revised Drew's work and completed the remaining portion, beginning from Chapter 64 through Chapter 133. Thus, Drew and Lazarus together made the first complete prose translation of the Tirukkural available in English. Meanwhile, there were two more verse translations made in 1872 and 1873 by Charles E. Gover and Edward Jewitt Robinson, respectively. While Gover translated only select couplets, Robinson translated the first two books of the Kural text. The first complete verse translation in English and the first complete English translation by a single author was achieved in 1886 by George Uglow Pope, whose work brought the Tirukkural to a wider audience of the western world.[15]
The first English translation by a native scholar (i.e., scholar who is a native speaker of Tamil) was made in 1915 by T. Tirunavukkarasu, who translated 366 couplets into English. The first complete English translation by a native scholar was made the following year by V. V. S. Aiyar, who translated the entire work in prose. Aiyar's work is considered by various scholars, including Czech scholar Kamil Zvelebil, to be the most scholarly of all the English translations made until then, including those by native English scholars.[2][16]
At least 24 complete translations were available in the English language by the end of the twentieth century, by both native and non-native scholars.[10] By 2014, there were about 57 versions available in English, of which at least 30 were complete.[17]
Comparison of translations
The following table illustrates two different facets of a subject depicted by two Kural couplets from the same chapter and their different interpretations by various translators.
Is it asked what is kindness and its opposite? It is the preservation of life, and its destruction (therefore) it is not right to eat that flesh (from which life has been taken away).
The wise, who have freed themselves from mental delusion, will not eat the flesh which has been severed from an animal.
Non-injury is otherwise known as compassion; doing injury is heartlessness. The wise know that it is a sin to eat the flesh of animals.
The good ones, free from the three kinds of blemishes (desires) and possessed of unalloyed wisdom will hold dead bodies as corpses and will not eat the flesh.
If you ask, "What is kindness and what is unkindness?" It is not-killing and killing. Thus, eating flesh is never virtuous.
(a) Perceptive souls who have abandoned passion Will not feed on flesh abandoned by life. (b) Insightful souls who have abandoned the passion to hurt others Will not feed on flesh that life has abandoned.
To make others break the law of not killing is inconsistent with compassion; There is, therefore, no sense in eating the meat obtained by such killing.
Those who have a vision that is not blurred by mental confusion Will not eat the meat of dead carcasses.
2003
V. Padmanabhan
Prose
Compassion warrants that one should not kill anybody and that too killing other creatures for food is more sinful.
Persons who are determined not to overlook moral disciplines will not take meat obtained by killing other species.
2009
V. Murugan
Verse
Benevolence is not to kill, and killing is lack of it And to eat the flesh thus obtained is an act unrighteous.
Men of vision freed of blemishes within Take not to eating the flesh of a lifeless body.
2009
Moorthy Rajaram
Verse
Non-killing is indeed an act of kindness Killing and eating it is unkindness.
The undeluded wise will ever avoid meat Which is but the flesh of a lifeless beast.
2009
Moorthy Rajaram
Prose
Not killing a creature is an act of kindness. Killing and eating its meat is unkindness.
Wise men who have clear mind will refrain from eating the flesh of a lifeless animal.
2012
A. Gopalakrishnan
Prose
When questioned about 'Kindness' and 'Non-kindness' the reply will be 'Non-killing' and 'Killing' respectively. One, without killing an animal by himself, eating the flesh of an animal killed by others, is also not meant by kindness.
Those, who have spotless and clear knowledge, will not eat the flesh of an animal from which life is taken out.
2014
S. P. Guruparan
Verse
(a) If it is asked what compassion is, it is not killing any living beings; And what is not compassion is killing and eating the flesh of the living beings!! (b) Not killing any living being is compassion And it is a sin to kill and eat the living beings!!
If one is freed from delusion and has the wisdom spotless He won't eat a body lifeless!!
He abounds in short and memorable, and if I might so call them, epigrammatic sayings, concentrating with a forceful brevity, the whole truth, which he desires to impart, into some single phrase, forging it into a polished shaft at once pointed to pierce, and barbed that it shall not lightly drop from the mind and memory.[19]
Pope went on to composing a poem on the universality of Valluvar, hailing him as the "Bard of Universal Man".[19]: 10
Criticisms on translations
The couplets of the Kural are inherently complex by virtue of their dense meaning within their terse structure. Thus, no translation can perfectly reflect the true nature of any given couplet of the Kural unless read and understood in its original Tamil form.[20] Added to this inherent difficulty is the attempt by some scholars to either read their own ideas into the Kural couplets or deliberately misinterpret the message to make it conform to their preconceived notions. The translations by the Christian missionaries are often criticized for misinterpreting the text in order to conform it to Christian principles and beliefs. In August 2022, the governor of Tamil Nadu, R. N. Ravi, criticized G. U. Pope for "translating with the colonial objective to 'trivialise' the spiritual wisdom of India," resulting in a "de-spiritualised version" of the Kural text.[21] According to V. Ramasamy, even the very first Latin translation of the text by Beschi is distorted. He writes, "Beschi is purposely distorting the message of the original when he renders பிறவாழி as 'the sea of miserable life' and the phrase பிறவிப்பெருங்கடல் as 'sea of this birth' which has been translated by others as 'the sea of many births'. Beschi means thus 'those who swim the vast sea of miseries'. The concept of rebirth or many births for the same soul is contrary to Christian principle and belief".[10]
Scholars also criticize Pope for over-emphasising certain texts from ancient Tamil literature while downplaying, or even dismissing, others, both ancient and more recent.[22] In his book Breaking India, Rajiv Malhotra writes of Pope's attempts to undermine Tamil spirituality. He writes of Pope's claims that all Tamil works are of Christian origin, and that Tamil culture has nothing to do with Indian culture, thereby forging a Dravidian identity that previously never existed.[23]: 68
Less-known translations
The Kural has also been translated numerous times without getting published or reaching the masses. Sri Aurobindo, for instance, has translated fifteen couplets of the Kural, including all the ten couplets from the opening chapter (in a different order from the original) and five from the second chapter, in 1919 as part of his translations of various other ancient works.[24]
^ abManavalan, A. A. (2010). A Compendium of Tirukkural Translations in English. Vol. 4 vols. Chennai: Central Institute of Classical Tamil. ISBN978-81-908000-2-0.
^"ShopUi". www.morebooks.shop. Retrieved 2 July 2024.
^ abcdRamasamy, V. (2001). On Translating Tirukkural (First ed.). Chennai: International Institute of Tamil Studies.
^A stone inscription found on the walls of a well at the Periya palayathamman temple at Royapettai indicates Ellis' regard for Thiruvalluvar. It is one of the 27 wells dug on the orders of Ellis in 1818, when Madras suffered a severe drinking water shortage. In the long inscription Ellis praises Thiruvalluvar and uses a couplet from Thirukkural to explain his actions during the drought. When he was in charge of the Madras treasury and mint, he also issued a gold coin bearing Thiruvalluvar's image. The Tamil inscription on his grave makes note of his commentary of Thirukkural.Mahadevan, Iravatham. "The Golden coin depicting Thiruvalluvar −2". Varalaaru.com (in Tamil). Retrieved 25 June 2010.
^The original inscription in Tamil written in the Asiriyapa meter and first person perspective: (The Kural he quotes is in Italics) சயங்கொண்ட தொண்டிய சாணுறு நாடெனும் | ஆழியில் இழைத்த வழகுறு மாமணி | குணகடன் முதலாக குட கடலளவு | நெடுநிலம் தாழ நிமிர்ந்திடு சென்னப் | பட்டணத்து எல்லீசன் என்பவன் யானே | பண்டாரகாரிய பாரம் சுமக்கையில் | புலவர்கள் பெருமான் மயிலையம் பதியான் | தெய்வப் புலமைத் திருவள்ளுவனார் | திருக்குறள் தன்னில் திருவுளம் பற்றிய் | இருபுனலும் வாய்த்த மலையும் வருபுனலும் | வல்லரணும் நாட்டிற் குறுப்பு | என்பதின் பொருளை என்னுள் ஆய்ந்து | ஸ்வஸ்திஸ்ரீ சாலிவாகன சகாப்த வரு | ..றாச் செல்லா நின்ற | இங்கிலிசு வரு 1818ம் ஆண்டில் | பிரபவாதி வருக்கு மேற் செல்லா நின்ற | பஹுதான்ய வரு த்தில் வார திதி | நக்ஷத்திர யோக கரணம் பார்த்து | சுப திநத்தி லிதனோ டிருபத்தேழு | துரவு கண்டு புண்ணியாஹவாசநம் | பண்ணுவித்தேன்.
^Zvelevil, K. (1962). Forward. Tirukkural by Tiruvalluvar. Translated by K. M. Balasubramaniam. Madras: Manali Lakshmana Mudaliar Specific Endowments. p. 327.
^Thirukural Tamil–English (in Tamil and English) (3 ed.). Chennai: New Century Book House. 2014. pp. xvi, 292. ISBN978-81-2340-949-8.
^Subramuniyaswami, Sivaya (1979). "Thirukural"(PDF). Retrieved 14 April 2017.
^ abcS. Maharajan (2017). Tiruvalluvar. Makers of Indian Literature (2nd ed.). New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi. ISBN978-8126053216.
Pope, G. U. (1886). The Sacred Kurral of Tiruvalluva Nayanar (with Latin Translation By Fr. Beschi) (Original in Tamil with English and Latin Translations). New Delhi: Asian Educational Services, pp. i–xxviii, 408
Padmanabhan, V. (2003). Thirukkural with English Explanation. Chennai: Manimekalai Prasuram, 280 pp.
Murugan, V. (2009). Thirukkural in English. Chennai: Arivu Pathippagam, xiv + 272 pp.
Guruparan, S. P. (2014). Thirukkural: English Translation. Chennai: Mayilavan Padhippagam, 416 pp.
Venkatachalam, R. (2015). Thirukkural—Translation—Explanation: A Life Skills Coaching Approach. Gurgaon, India: Partridge Publishing India, 689 pp. ISBN978-1-4828-4290-6.
Further reading
Srirama Desikan, S. N. (1961). Tiruvalluvar's Tirukkural in Sanskrit slokas. Prabha Press. 77 pp.
Manavalan, A. A. (2010). A Compendium of Tirukkural Translations in English (4 vols.). Chennai: Central Institute of Classical Tamil, ISBN978-81-908000-2-0.
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