The Tirukural
People praise the Tirukural but in practice they cherish the Gita which is directly opposed to it!
Valluvar’s Kural is impelled by ideas that are in accordance with practical knowledge, and in tune with Nature and Science.
Those who study the Kural deeply will certainly attain a consciousness of self – respect. Knowledge of politics, knowledge of society and knowledge of economics are all embedded in it.
The Tirukural is a work that is so written as to teach society noble traits and proper conduct by pointing to a moral path and fostering ethical principles. That is why peoples of all religion, all over, adore the Kural as their work or as one that agrees with the principles of their religion.
It is my firm conviction that the kural was especially created to demonstrate that the arts, culture, ethics and conduct of the Tamils were vastly different from and antithetical to those of the Aryans.
Only because we regard Valluvar as a man, a great man, who strove of the removal of the ills of the people so that human qualities could be nurtured, we accept his kural. We do not accept it as divine utterance or inspired Apocalypse.
It is better to read ten kural for knowledge, than a hundred songs of kamba Ramayana or two hundred songs of periapurana, or kandapurana.
If any one asks you what yours religion is say that you belong to the ‘ Valluvar Religion ‘ and if you are asked what your moral code is , say that it is the kural . The kural is so irrefutable that no conservative or crafty person will dare to oppose you.
The Tirukural will pave a lofty way for the eradication of superstition and the enlargement of knowledge. The thoughts of the kural should be spread throughout the country. It should be brought about that education means the learning of the kural and knowledge means, the awareness of the kural.
The author of the kural did not accept God, Heaven and Hell, You could find only Virtue, wealth and Love in the Kural; ‘ Salvation ‘ and ‘ Final Bliss ‘ are not alluded to by the author.
In the Kural, there is a chapter on invocation to God, but there is no place in it for principles of idol worship.
Valluvar has invoked God though eight or nine concepts only to show how man should conduct himself and to make him understand life’s ethical conduct and status.
The kural is not devotional book. It is not also a book of theology to reveal God; nor is it a book of religious doctrines for evangelism. It only teaches true and egalitarian conduct which is agreeable to all.
He who has intelligence and beholds to knowledge as supreme and he who has the capacity to think and investigate will certainly respect and admire the kural, follow it to some extent at least and keep it as his guide.
The kural embodies in it ethics and practical ways of life, based on experience.
The kural is a treasure house of knowledge. It is a work bound by reason.
E. V. Ramasamy Periyar (17 September 1879 – 24 December 1973)
