Publisher's Synopsis
The real greatness of Tirukkural is its survival, even after the onslaughts of many heterogeneous creeds. In the last two thousand years, it never failed to attract any scholar or lover of wisdom. They have glorified Valluvar and his monumental magnum opus "The Kural" with scintillating tributes. It is true that the great poet of modern times Mahakavi Subramaniya Bharathi aptly said that "Tamilnadu gave Valluvar to the world! And thereby gained the everlasting fame!"The purpose of this anthology is to bring out the Rev. Dr. G. U. Pope's Tirukkural translation in English along with the erudite Tamil Scholar Dr. Mu. Varadarajan's Tamil commentary for the benefit of scholars and students. We have compiled and published Rev. G. U. Pope's English translation of the Tirukkural is a fitting tribute to this great classic, a valuable contribution to English and a great service to Tamil. This is a labour of love which will earn for the author the admiration and gratitude of the Tamil-loving public. Dr. Mu. Varadarajan reveals a fine grasp of the genius of Tiruvalluvar and commands the most refined temperament to render into lucid commentary the terse and highly condensed poetical expressions of Tiruvalluvar. May this work bring a great flood of many-sided enlightenment and delight to all.As a great thinker, of Tiruvalluvar actually transgresses the frontiers of language and creed. His scripture of Universalism has induced to recognize him as one of the great philosophers, to be placed in the midst of Socrates, Kant and Confucius, the illustrious moral philosophers of the mankind. In the sphere of political science and public administration, Valluvar seems supreme in his treatment and humanistic approach than Aristotle, Kautilya, Kamantaka, Sukkra, Machiavelli and Harold Laski.
