About Sage(Saint) Tiruvalluvar

Tiruvalluvar was a  sage who lived in Tamil Nadu over two thousand years ago. He lived in Mylapore, in   the present city    of  Chennai . Tiruvalluvar was married to Vasuki, who was  an ideal housewife.  It  is said that soon after they married, Vasuki enquied once: "My dear lord, for many years now, I have pondered as to the reason behind my lord’s strange request that a toothpick accompanied by a little water be placed on your supper table. I am troubled that the secret may be buried along with my revered lord and husband. Valluvar smiled and said gently: "Dear Vasuki, you are a devoted wife and have served me very well all these years. Kindly forgive me for not explaining to you earlier the reason for my request to you. You see, if a grain of rice or a morsel of food accidentally fell on to the table while I was eating, it would be a great sin to let such food go to waste. With the toothpick available, I could easily pick up the fallen food, rinse it in the water you so kindly provided, and eat it thereafter. Food would thus not go wasted. "Is it not marvellous that  despite this  caution the famous poet  never dropped  even a   single grain of rice in all the years that he was married to Vasuki! . This delightful story tells us what kind of a person   sage Tiruvalluvar  was. The saintly Tiruvalluvar and his devoted wife Vasuki have been held as perfect ideals of the Hindu household life ever since they left this earth.

Tiruvalluvar was a renowned philosopher and a man of great wisdom on par with Socrates and Confucious. And beyond that, he was a  Sage(Saint) and a great Poet too. Tiruvalluvar's Thirukkural is the world’s foremost , finest and fantastic piece of poetical literature ever written. It covers every aspect of life in short poems of two lines. This literary marvel written by Saint Thiruvalluvar is traced by the Historians to the year 30 B.C. It is composed of 133 chapters with 10 expositions under each of them making them to a total of 1330 couplets. Each one of these couplets is noted for its brevity, rich meaning, breadth of vision and choice of diction, all at once noble and elevating. Contemporary poets have compared each couplet to a tiny mustard seed possessing within seven seas of knowledge inlaid.
Thirukkural is among the oldest literary works of the world. Erudite contemporary Poets and the great Kings of those days acknowledged the literary greatness of this Masterpiece imparting Self Development Skills, Communication and Public Speaking Skills, Family Management and Parenting Skills, Right Attitudes towards Work, Wealth, Friends and Enemies, Managerial Skills and Good Governance And the skills to make us more ethical by imbibing  ethical  values advised by  Tiruvalluvar.Wriiten by Thiruvalluvar in Tamil two thousand years ago,Thirukkural's Peals of Wisdom,is as relevant to-day, as it was when written.Hence it is known as a book for all ages. .

 Thirukkural was  lost to the community for some time, it was again compiled and published in 600 A.D. Since then, it has been widely translated,Apart from Indian languages, it has been translated in several foreign languages including  English, French, German and Latin. One of the reasons for its wide translation in different languages of the world is the undeniable fact that the ethics and the values it carries are applicable to all religions, all countries and all times. The following are few of the tributes in honor of Thirukkural from the world scholars of yester years.
It is a book of indispensable authority on moral life. The maxims have touched my soul.
-Mahathma Gandhi
It has a charming effect. It is truly an apple of gold in the network of silver.
- Dr. Graul
Thirukkural is a treatise par excellence on the art of living.
- Dr. K. M. Munshi
The KURAL, may be called a mandatory ethics.
- Dr E. H. Hopkins

vedaprakasha
http://www.ethicalvaluesfromtirukkural.blogspot.com/