The unveiling of Thiruvalluvar Statue in Bangalore Karnataka and the Sarvajna Statue in Chennai Tamil Nadu in the month of August 2009 has created considerable interest among the people about these poets who propagated the best human values of their times. Thirukkural, a moral book of values was written in Tamil by Thiruvalluvar. Saravjna padagalu, a collection of poems on various topics was written in Kannada by Sarvanja. Both these works have transcended all barriers including the language.
Thiruvalluvar is said to have lived sometime in the period between 300 BC TO 300 AD. Sarvajna is believed to have lived in the period between 1600 AD to 1800 AD. The life history of both these poets are not recorded and therefore this leads to spinning of stories to show that these poets belonged to a particular religion or caste.
Many scholars conclude that Thiruvalluvar was a follower of Jain Religion. But there are serious claims that he should be a Buddhist, Saivaite, Vaishnavite and Christian. Some of the portraits of Thiruvalluvar wear sacred ash in the forehead and all over body. Some people even believe that the top shawl seen in the portraits and Statues of Thiruvalluvar is provided to avoid a controversy whether Thiruvalluvar was having a sacred thread across his body.
Some believe that Thiruvalluvar came from Valluvar clan who perform priestly duties among Pariah tribe , untouchables. This was even endorsed by G.U Pope who translated Kural in to English. There are research papers to establish Thiruvalluvar as belonging to ruling class, intermediate castes etc.
One of the stories about Thiruvalluvar inform that Valluvar was born to a Brahmin man and Puliah ( dalit) woman. This shows the mentality and psychiology of some people to believe that every wise man should come from a Brahmin blood .
Such a story is available to Sarvajna too. His father was a Shaivaite Brahmin and his mother was a Shudra widow named Mali. His father met his mother in a potter’s house at a place in present day Dharwar district in Karnataka on his way to Benares on a pilgrimage. It is said that Pusgpadatta alias Sarvajna himself narrated his origin.
Out of the 2000 Saravjna padagalu available many insertions were made in later period. The popularity of the work of Sarvajna had reached all sections of society including the common man and attracted by the Sarvajna ’s ideas it seems everyone wanted to write like him. Of the printed copies of Sarvajna’s works no two books are alike. This is the regrettable plight of preserving literary works in our country.
Thirukkural is fortunate to have 10 old treatises dating back to about a millennia and hundreds of treatises written in the last century. Parimelazhagar, a notable scholar of 700 AD in Pallava period wrote a treatise which is still acting as An Anti virus which has made altering or insertions impossible.
While Thiruvalluvar expressed in couplets of two lines, Sarvajna has written in Tripadi metre of three lines. Some of their pieces are comparable.
Both these great poets thought against rituals of the Indian religions and caste system and therefore should be considered revolutionary thinkers of their period. While Thiruvalluvar goes for a straightforward moral advice which was the style of his period, Sarvajna sings in tune with common man more fluently. The following excerpts from their works speak volumes of truth.
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On Rituals and worship
Better than performing Yagas pouring flesh in fire
Is one life unkilled , uneaten - Thiruvalluvar
Circling around the temple
without devotion without dedication
is as useless as an ox circling around a mill - Sarvajna
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On markers of Religions:
No need of tonsure or long hair
If one but avoids what the world condemns - Thiruvalluvar
Wearing marks of ash,
if one goes to heaven,
a donkey (that rolls in ash) sure goes - Sarvajna
On Equality:
Birth is alike to all
Excellence is measured only by the deeds - Thiruvalluvar
When light enters Pariah’s dwelling
As it also outcaste for that? Oh talk not of
High caste and outcaste - Sarvajna
On Agriculture :
After trying other jobs the world comes to the plough
Which though hard is the best - Thiruvalluvar
Knowledge of Agriculture js far better than
And preferable to crores of other branches of knowledge
For without agriculture the country is sure to cease - Sarvajna
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On keeping good company
There is no greater aid than good company
Nor worse affliction than bad - Thiruvalluvar
Keeping good company is like tasting Honey
Keeping a bad company is like
Touching the drainage - Sarvajna
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On Public women:
Fraught with ill are the sweet words
Of jeweled women who sell their love - Thiruvalluvar
The fig tree has no flowers
The monkey has no curls
Death has no medicine
The whore has no sympathy - Sarvajna
On women with love
Can even the heaven give the rest
I find in my Love’s soft shoulder? - Thiruvalluvar
Terrestrial life is possible only through woman
Celestial life is possible only through woman
All peace and plenty is possible only through woman - Sarvajna
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Tags: Bangalore, chennai, Jain, Kannada, Karnataka, literature, Sarvajna, Tamil, Tamil Nadu, Thirukkural, ThiruvalluvarNo related posts.
22 Comments
A very nice & timely article. I found it very useful. Thank you, malar.
The best from the new poet that I got to know this week :
Keeping good company is like tasting Honey
Keeping a bad company is like
Touching the drainage – Sarvajna
Haa haa! :-) Love it.
-vikadakavi
Mr. Malarthamil! I always read your postings with keen interest and admire you as a well-read- informed and a prolific writer. This one too is very informative to me as I come to know many new things, at the same time it’s also a hair-splitting matter to me. I am of the idea that the genius Thiru’Valluvar lived in a period even before or at least at the same period when the influence of Aryanism and Buddhism setting foot-hold in the Dravidian South. In other words, what I am trying to say is that he lived before the social segregation by casteism and Buddhist philosophy made their say in the South.
Your assertion: “One of the stories about Thiruvalluvar informs that Valluvar was born to a Brahmin man and Puliah (dalit) woman. This shows the mentality and psychology of some people to believe that every wise man should come from a Brahmin blood”
By your conclusion you assert and confine Valluvar’s extraordinary intellectual power and valor to improve spiritual, social, governance and intellectual awareness of mankind and those qualities such as school of thoughts and mental fineness being decorous of conduct and elegant manners, superior social status marked by gentility, politeness and prestige ONLY TO THE BRAHMIN BLOOD – not to others; and never been part of Dravidian heritage! I am so sorry to say ‘it is silly’, Mr. Malar. I accept the fact that a Brahman is a Hindu of the highest caste traditionally assigned to the priesthood and an intellectually and socially cultivated / groomed person regarded as aloof; and their Brahmanism is a philosophical practices of Orthodox Hinduism adhering to the doctrines of the Vedas and to the ancient scarifies and family ceremonies. But I can not accept that they are the sole decorum for emancipating Tamils and Tamils’ heritage in the South. He doesn’t deserve acclamation. Please don’t take me wrong, I just mentioned how I feel about it, yet I enjoyed reading and look forward to more of your contribution. Thank you!
Great timely article! Nice to read about poems and poets!
What is your best kural..
I like the ones on inspiration(Ukkam)..This guy was a genius who taled inspiration is as important as much as hard work..that he allocated 10 poems to it..
This is v much resonates with research done on business..People with overconfidence and inspired more than they should be based on the chips they have, are on an avg expected to succeed more than those who are more realistic..
Also it is slightly diff from 1% inspiration formula..
Ronin
Someone has already written a book of management principles in Thirukkural. I saw it in Connemara library few years back.Probably many books should be available. I will look for them in the next chennai book fair.
malar
Dear Nithyanandan
I don’t think I have made any conclusion that wise should come from a specific blood. I refer only such stories which are spread by vested interests.
malar
I ‘ve heard Research does indicate (according to my old Intl mgmt prof) that intelligence follows a statistical normal distribution in all parts of the world..ie you are more likely to find same proportion of geniuses in India, Iran, Germany and Nigeria as part of the population..
Of course US ends up recruiting most of them (atleast the PHDs) as they mess with the normal distribution, as they/we like to do always..
I read a articles on the findings of Harvard alum economist Senior Obama and he was bang on 25 yrs future predictions abt effects of African land distribution..unfortunately he was and is still ahead of economic science that is practiced in many parts of the world..
Forgot to mention that senior Obama was born/lived in Kenya to a landowner/servant to whites..And he was a clerk himself before coming to US..
It certainly is a good step between the two states TN & Karnataka.
thiruvalluvar was a great indian philosopher and saint. a dravidian saint. what denomination or caste he belonged to, is not important. but what is important is : that all that he said, he wrote and he believed in a few thousand years ago, is still relevant today. and will be relevant even when we colonize planet mars, or even if we submerge the watery depths of the jovian moon europa.
thiruvalluvar’s knowledge and the kural pervades all humanity and shall pervade one day the whole universe.
kural is based on dharma and philosophies that looked beyond the stars and the 3 dimensions that we live in today.
let all humans read the kural, and reach for the stars.
again, regarding his caste. the most high caste human in india, originated from the bowels of the african bushman hundred thousand years back. we are all the same, whether we are white, black, yellow, brown or even purple. whether we are tamil, hindi, singalam, chinese, british or kenyan.
Read this and prevent war :
https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/atlas.html
Births of such remarkable men of yore, like the two under discussion here, are important to understand them and their work in proper perspective.
The Kannadiga’s birth adds significance to his lines; and, there is no reason why the same cant be said of the lines written by the Tamilian.
To be born a bastard always rankles in one’s mind: if he is an ordinary person, he will keep it to himself, but feeling always ‘lost’ in a moral society, or, pretentious moral society. This theme is given a effective and moving celluloid expression in a Malaylam feature film starred by Mohanlal. He played the role of ‘Applakkkaaran’ – a seller of papaadams manufactured by his malayalam mother. Mohanlan is the bastard child of the mother, i.e. his father, a Tamilian, who had a brief liaison with his mother, abandoned her before the child was born. The film is a long agonizing story of this bastard and how he went on receiving speechlessly all asides and innuendos from the villagers snidely referring to his bastardage.
Lets now come to the Kannadiga poet. He was also a bastard, born to a brahmin man on his way to Kashi – born of a brief crush on the low caste woman. The child was born and the father abandoned the mother, since a marriage was impossible between the two extreme castesin 16th century. How deeply this humiliation of having an unknown and run-away father should have pierced the heart of this poet, is, I think, given expression through his tripads. Had he been ordinary, he would have been a Mohanlal. But he was special, a poet par excellence.
All his talk of caste, (a la, Tamil Sithars, in particular, Sivavakkiyar, also a dalit man who wanted to break into the brahmin stronghold of ‘saintliness’, but insulted, hence heaped shame on Brahmins,) should be seen strictly in the context of his bastardage.
Come to talk about Tamilian, it is speculated, as the essayist here wrote, that he was also a bastard child of a brahmin and pulaichi, a dalit woman. It is not only G.U.Pope but also Maraimalai adiagal, who has said that the Tamil poet was born in a dalit cheri at Mylopore in a large joint family and the woman poet Avvai was his sister. No evidence. All speculations only.
Reading his two-lined poems, the kurals, there is no gainsaying the fact that they have universal value; and, will last after all of us have died or, as long as Tamil is spoken and read. Yet, the poet and his times cannot be kept in watertight compartments. All poets are influenced by the circumstances in which they were born and brought up. The Tamil poet said many things that are universally valid, and yet, a few things that are to be disregarded by a decent society, for e.g. his outlook on women. On a closer scrutiny, we could discern that he supported many orthodox values in his society, and in religion; and felt one with the people of high life. His outlook on the poor who must have been in existence in large numbers then as always, is not evident in his two-lined wonders. If at all, one could dare say, he must have had only contempt for them. His pieces or athikarams (sets of ten poems on each subject) on abstention from non-vegetarianism and alcohol and many other such habits are evidences to show that he looked down upon such people whose daily lives could not be without these mundane habits. The lower classes of society, in any society, lived by physical labour and the working classes need such habits. Theirs is not genteel society; and the Tamil poet advocated genteel values of urbane and polite society. It is like complaining that the rich eat on a sliver plate, and the poor, on torn plantain leaves, so I hate them. What temerity!
I would rather prefer the Kannadiga to the Tamilian for the simple reason that the former lived among the lower classes, because he was conscious of being one them, and so wrote for them; the latter hobnobbed with kings and princes (he advised them!) moving in high society, hating inwardly the lower classes.
Dear Zeno, I welcome you to truthive
Your observations, although I do not agree with, make a point to note and think about.
You believe in that b…… story about Sarvajna which I do not believe. But we both have no evidence to prove his ancestry.
See your observation below which lacks logic,
“His pieces or athikarams (sets of ten poems on each subject) on abstention from non-vegetarianism and alcohol and many other such habits are evidences to show that he looked down upon such people whose daily lives could not be without these mundane habits. ”
By saying these can you apply the same yardstick to Gandhi & Rajaji? So whoever advising non vegetarianism and alcohol have a habit of looking down the people at lower status? And do you think that generally rich people do away with meat and alcohol?
You remind me Thirumalai in Karuthu
Moreover your preference of kannadiga to Tamilian is uncalled for.
Our comaparison should be only to highlight the universal qualities of these wisemen
malar
Thanks to know I have a point to think of. You are correct that advocacy of vegetarianism and teetotalism can be voiced by anyone, so Thiruvallauvar’s advocacy need not be a criticism of low class people. Nevertheless, people even today feel that among the lower classes, alcoholism is rampant; and beef-eating is associated compulsorily with dalits. I once read Udit Raj writing in HT that banning beef-eating is an indirect insult on his people.
Truth or reality may be otherwise, as you said, and all should agree with that. The prejudice or sterotyped thinking that certain communities have certain vices or habits, is alive even today. In Tamil TV serials, the dalits are portrayed as having such habits in vicious degree. The dalit man is a wife beater; he comes home heavily drunk and kicks her. The muscle men of rich men are all from this section of society. Dalits are not evolved humans. This is in 2009.
It is all my naughty speculation to say Valluvar has looked down upon the poor. The speculation is rife in me, because I dont see any words in his kurals referring to such section of society, although there is no doubt at all the Vedic culture of degrading these people had already entered society when he was alive.
If we take saints of yore, we can discern the fact that the brahmins always played mischief with their births. a saint happens to have been born in a lower caste, they have ensured that his lower caste status is erased from people’s memory; or twisted to say he was indeed born of a brahmin womb. The telling example is the case of Thirumazhiyisai alvaar.
But all this will take a long narrative. Excuse me.
Beef eating is not compulsary with all the Dalits.
My grand mother used to say that having come from Samban clan we cannot eat beef. My ancestral village is a dalit only hamlet where no family eat beef. When I got married and went to village to seek the blessings of elders they were happy that my wife too came from non beef eaters. ( The truth was she as a doctor used to take beef in her party feasts in Medical college where beef was one of the dishes and people from all communities tasted the dish well.)
The history of beef eating associated with Dalits can be read in Ambedkar’s book” Unuchables – who are they”
And Valluvar in Chapter 105 Poverty, 106 Begging, 107 Dread of begging has written 30 couplets. I hope they are for the poor in all communities.
We as belonging to Upper/Intermediate/ Lower position in the caste system have a tendency to celebrate Valluvar belonging to our own community.
But outsiders like GU Pope have refused to buy such stories of Pulayah woman – Brahmin man.
Interesting to read you.
I should have a dekko at the top Tamil hero’s magnum opus. His couplets on such topics as cited by you need to be read by me again.
I lived in Northern and in Southern states like Karnataka and A.P and, had seen the people generally categorized as dalits in modern sociology. The dalits of India dont appear to follow a uniform culture throughout the country. What qualifies them to be categorised so, is the menial or ‘ugly’ occupations trditionally forced upon them by the decadent caste system devised by the Brahmins to degrade these people. Otherwise, there are serious variations in their lifestyles in India.
The dalits of Northern States, esp. in the so-called BIMARU states, are still outside the pale of cultured society. I mean, their culture is still rudimentary although they dont live outside towns and villages as in the past. All of them are meat eaters, the beef takes a pride of place in their menu.
Raj, a UP dalit man, resigned from Indian Revenue Service as Commissioner of Income Tax to launch a party for dalits – which has its own agenda namely, to voice for the victimization of dalits in government service. It was he who wrote in a newspaper column the words I wrote in my earlier message, when the BJP tried to say that the dalits’ beef eating is a modern phenomenon. Udit Raj, a convert to Buddhism, is against any attempt by Hindutva lobby to woo dalits to Hinduism. He is true. I hardly came across a dalit in Northern India – from my experiences as also, hearsay – who avoids beef in eating habits.
The dalits in Southern States are better. at some places, more sophisticated than others in food habits. I would like to refer to many beef eaters among Pillais of KK district as compared to people you showed up here.
Just as there are good poor and bad poor, so there are dalits with refined culture and dalits with raw culture.
Thank you.
Pl. correct it to read:
…voice against…
One of the greatest contributions of India to the world is Holy thirukural . The spiritual philosophy and management lessons in this holy book were brought in to light of the world by many great Indian saint’s effort and they call the Thirukural the essence of Vedic Literature and a complete guide to practical life. It provides “all that is needed to raise the consciousness of man to the highest possible level.” Maharishi reveals the deep, universal truths of life that speak to the needs and aspirations of everyone. Your followers in your establishment continuing the mission by keeping this lantern burning always knowing the wishes of the modern generations. Arjuna got mentally depressed when he saw his relatives with whom he has to fight.( Mental health has become a major international public health concern now). To motivate him the Bhagavad-Gita is preached in the battle field Kurukshetra by Lord Krishna to Arjuna as counseling to do his duty while multitudes of men stood by waiting. Arjuna face the problem of onflict between emotions and intellect . In almost all of the cases,
Thirukkural is a holy book. Holy book means it is a book for a particular religious people to follow. It is just a book of maxims (நீதிநூல்). It is not a மறை like Vedas. Vedas are called marai for two reasons:
1. Its meanings are obscure and arcane. So, they cant be understood by common people. Teachers are necessary to explain the meanings.
2. The vedas should be studied only brahmins; should be explained only to brahmins. Common people, especially the lower castes, should be denied the access to Vedas.
Thiurkkural is not மறை. Its meanings are simple and intelligble to everyone. The kurals are written in simple common Tamil. Its meanings are not obscure and arcane. No teacher is necessar4y. With simple efforts, the kurals can be understood. It is not restricted to one caste people. Its access is not denied to anyone. It is a common and open book.
Vedas divided society. Thiurkkural made every Tamil feel proud to possess it. It unites Tamils. Each and every Tamil, regardless of his religion, calls it his own.
Therefore, it is mischievous to class or call Thiurkkural a holy book and it teaches vedic philosophy. The brahmnins played the mischief in the past, by putting poonul around the trunk of the poet. Today, his body is covered by a long robe. Otherwise, brahmnins will put poonul.
Bhaattahiri’s mischief should alert everyone here. Lets resist any attempt to push the poet into a particular religion or ideology or philosophy.
Please read my first sentence as ‘Thirukkural is NOT a holy book.”
Pl provide preview facility
I agree with Zeno completely. Thirukkural was NOT a “holy book” in the past, it is NOT considered a “holy book” at present and shall NEVER be a “holy book”!!! Period!
The so-called “holy books” are associated with people who claim that non-existent imaginary entities called “gods” wrote the “holy books” or “revealed” them to some person. These people therefore claim that these “holy books” are the “words of the gods” and they should never be questioned or challenged or doubted even if several of these so-called “holy books” contain primitive, savage behaviour that would make any civilised person cringe with shame at some of the contents of these so-called “holy books”. NONE of the so-called “holy books” are capable of withstanding a scientific enquiry as their contents would be proved completely false immediately, or ridiculously exaggerated, twisted and imaginary myths at best.
The Kural on the other hand, was written by a poet who happened to be remarkably skilled in his vocation. Since the poems that Thiruvalluvar wrote in his book describe ethical behaviour, he is known as a poet-saint, that’s all. In fact, it’s not even known for sure if Thiruvalluvar was regarded as a saint in his own lifetime. He could very well have been a respected gentleman who lived an ethical life during his time and was fond of writing in the language that he had mastered. He was a human, a mere mortal but an enlightened one, and the Thirukkural is a book of ethical poetry – period! Thiruvalluvar was NEITHER an imaginary entity called “god” NOR an “incarnation” of any entity NOR the blood relative of any “god” NOR does he claim that an imaginary entity “revealed” the book to him. I’m irritated as well by any mishief to portray the poet who wrote an unparalleled book of poetry as anything other than what he was and to claim his work as a “holy book”. It is NOT a “holy book”!
Anyone is free, and more importantly welcome, to read the book, understand its meaning, debate its contents, question the couplets, treat it to a scientific enquiry or even criticise the couplets that one does not agree with. Unlike the religious people who claim that their “holy books” are to be held above such rational behaviour, no one asks for Thiruvalluvar’s book to be treated in such a way. Thiruvalluvar himself would be aghast if his book were to be portrayed as a “holy book” because it is NOT!
Thirukkural is holy not because it teaches how to do your daily pooja. It is holy because it tells you how to live life holier. It is in this spirit that everybody, even a person like Karunanidhi who calls himself as rationalist calls Thirukkural as ‘ulaga podhu marai’. Even Hinduism says that there is not only one way to reach God, you can reach God without ever praying, only by doing your daily duties. It is known as Karma yoga. Vivekananda has written 4 separate books on each yoga, that is each way to reach God. Karma yoga, gnana yoga, raja yoga and bakthi yoga. You must understand, bakthi or devotion is only one of the four ways to reach god according to the Hindu scriptures. There is even a story in Tamil nadu linking karma yoga with Thiruvalluvar’s wife. It goes like this. There was a rishi in a forest who was doing meditation and two cranes that were fighting with each other dropped the leaves on him and his meditation was disturbed. He looked at the cranes with anger and due to the power of his eyes the cranes were burnt to ashes. Very happy at the level of power he has achieved through meditation the rishi went into the near by village for getting alms. There he stood before a house and the lady of the house who was serving her husband asked him to wait for a few minutes. It was a little late. The rishi thought “you lady, you don’t know my power”. Immediately the lady asked from inside the house, “kokendru ninaitthaayo konganavaa”. The rishi’s name was kongava munivar. Shocked at the answer, he asked her how she knew what happened in the forest. She asked him to go and meet the butcher in the next village. It is generally said that the lady was Thiruvalluvar’s wife. Then the rishi went to the butcher. The butcher asked him whether the lady in the next village sent him and told him to wait. After a few hours he packed and took the rishi to his house. There he served food to his elderly parents and then made them sleep and then came to the rishi and explained that it is not necessary that one needs to do tapas or meditation or pray to achieve enlightenment, it is sufficient if one does his duty properly.
I hope this story clarifies that holy does not necessarily mean religious and even religion does not mean God and prayer.
I want to ask my Christian brothers how they claim that Tiruvalluvar was a Christian. There are several questions.
1) The first kural refers to ‘Adhi baghawan’. The first theerthankara of Jains is Adhinath Bhagwan and it should not lead to any doubts here.
2) Silapadhikaaram and manimekalai refer to kural and silpadhikaaram itself is dated at 1st century CE. So kural must be older than that.
3) Valluvar also talks about maayon, leading to claims from vaishnavites that he was a vaishnavite but this can be easily dismissed because other known jain works too talk about several hindu gods.
4) He also talks about re-birth, a belief that Christianity vehemently denies.
5) As far as I know he does not talk about ‘our father’ or the ‘son’.
Can someone explain?
And when it comes to caste I think it should be given the least importance because none of the great people who have praised Thiruvalluvar spoke anywhere about his caste and we as lesser mortals must learn to respect this fact and avoid taking ownership of him. However Valluvar is a caste in TN, and they are known for astrology. We in our family consult an astrologer who belongs to the Valluvar caste. So we can guess that he may have been a member of this caste.
Blogged about it, linked to it, and for good measure threw in a Digg as well. Thanks for the effort.