In the recent pro-jallikattu protests, many people from Tamil Nadu quoted the Thirukkural to justify their horrendous cruelty towards helpless animals. Jallikattu was forcibly restarted by the Tamil Nadu governor, who overrode two judgements of the Supreme Court, thereby weakening the very fabric of India’s administration. Hundreds of people have been wounded and some have died in these so called peaceful games that only demonstrate the “Tamil love for the bull”. Many of the maimed and injured bulls have subsequently been sent for slaughter in Kerala.

Bible of Tamil Nadu

In any case, quoting the poet Thiruvalluvar to support violence is literally twisting everything the Thirukkural stands for. While the book of verses is revered all over the world and translated into 82 languages (the treatise has earned the title “Ulaga Podhu Marai” the universal scripture or Potumarai—“The Universal Veda” or “Book for All”), it is little known in India and it is time this wisdom was learnt.

The Thirukkural is the Bible of Tamil Nadu. Meaning Sacred/Respected Couplets, it was authored by the poet Thiruvalluvar (of whom nothing is known. The first instance of the author’s name is found centuries later in a song of praise called the Garland of Thiruvalluvar in Thiruvalluva Malai) and has 1,330 couplets or kurals dealing with morality, ethics and virtue. It is a truly sage and beautiful work and is one of the finest, non-religious, works of philosophy. Written in Old Tamil, it is a palm leaf manuscript of the 4th to 1st century BC. It was printed for the first time in 1812. The first English translation of the Kural was completed by George Uglow Pope in 1886, which brought the Thirukkural to the western world. 

It has 133 chapters of 10 couplets each. Thirukkural was originally known as ‘Muppaal’, meaning three-sectioned book. There are three parts that the Thirukkural is divided into, namely, aram/dharma (virtue), porul/artha (wealth) and inbam/kama (love). Thiruvalluvar has left out moksha as he felt if a person followed the first three doctrines diligently in life, he or she would automatically attain it.

Practical solutions

What is different about the treatise is that it expounds a moral and practical attitude towards life. It makes no promises of heaven beyond earth. It speaks of the ways of behaving to achieve bliss in the present life itself. The ideas of the poet are luminous and humane: humility, charity, nonviolence, forgiveness, asceticism, good administration. It is a perfect guide to live your life at the highest and purest level so that you are happy and make everyone around you happy. Thirukkural deals with dilemmas that normal people face every day—over morals, politics, economy, love and domestic life, providing practical solutions to these problems.

Albert Schweitzer said “there hardly exists in the literature of the world a collection of maxims in which we find so much lofty wisdom. Like the Buddha and the Bhagavad Gita, the Kural desires inner freedom from the world and a mind free from hatred. Like them it stands for the commandment not to kill and not to damage. There appears in the Kural the living ethic of love.” Leo Tolstoy was inspired by its concept of non-violence. “What are wanted for the Indian as for the Englishman, the Frenchman, the German, and the Russian, are not Constitutions and Revolutions: the knowledge of the simple and clear truth which finds place in every soul that is not stupefied by religious and scientific superstitions—the truth that for our life one law is valid—the law of love, which brings the highest happiness to every individual as well as to all mankind.” Mahatma Gandhi studied the Thirukkural in prison and called it “a textbook of indispensable authority on moral life” and went on to say, “The maxims of Valluvar have touched my soul. There is none who has given such a treasure of wisdom like him”.

The heart of the work

“Mannuyir ompi arulaalvaarkku illenpa thannuyir anjum vinai” For he who treats other living beings with kindness, In his own soul the dreaded guilt of sin shall never feel (Verse 244). 

This week let me give you the Thirukkural verses on not eating the flesh of animals.

How can someone possess kindness, if one eats meat from another body to grow one’s own body? (Verse 251)

One, who doesn’t value money can’t be wealthy; one, who eats meat, can’t be compassionate. (Verse 252)

The heart of one who has eaten and relished flesh, is like the heart of one leading an army: it cannot be compassionate. (Verse 253)

The heart of one who has eaten and relished flesh, is like the heart of one holding a deadly weapon: it cannot be compassionate. (Verse 253, version 2)

What is compassion, and the lack of it: not killing and killing; it is not virtuous to eat meat got by killing. (Verse 254)

Compassion is exemplified by not killing; and the lack of it, by killing: to eat meat so obtained, is not virtuous. (Verse 254, version 2)

Kural 254 is structured very interestingly, allowing another interpretation: Lack of compassion is exemplified by straying from the value of ‘not killing’; to eat meat so obtained is not virtuous. (Verse 254, version 3)

Survival of species, depends on not being eaten; those who eat them…hell will not split its mouth to spit them out. (Verse 255)

The rationalist in Kalaignar, finds another interpretation for Kural 255 that is literally more accurate, but contextually not quite convincing: Even a swamp will not swallow a life; survival of species is ensured by presence of vegetarians. (Verse 255, version 2)

There won’t be anyone selling meat for the sake of earning, if the world stops killing for the sake of eating. (Verse 256)

Meat is the wound of some body; if one gets this realisation, stop eating it. (Verse 257)

Those who have wisdom, free of flaws, would not eat a body, freed of its life. (Verse 258)

To desist from killing a life and eating it, is better than doing a thousand rituals, offering oblation. (Verse 259)

To one who doesn’t kill and refuses meat, all lives will fold their arms and pay obeisance.

 To join the animal welfare movement contact [email protected], www.peopleforanimalsindia.org