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Tamil Wisdom, by Edward Jewitt Robinson, 1873^[1]

Tirukkural remains one of the most widely translated non-religious works in the world. As of 2014, there were at least 57 versions available in the English language alone. English, thus, continues to remain the language with most number of translations available of the Kural text.

List of translations

Below is a list of English translations of the Tirukkural till date:^[2]

History of English translations

G. U. Pope, the first complete English translator of the Kural in verse

V. V. S. Aiyar, the first native scholar who made a complete translation of the Kural into English

Following the translation of the Kural text into Latin by Constantius Joseph Beschi in 1730,^[9] Nathaniel Edward Kindersley attempted the first ever English translation of the Kural text in 1794, translating select couplets in verse. Francis Whyte Ellis attempted the second English translation, who translated only 120 of the 1330 couplets of the Kural text—69 in verse and 51 in prose.^{[10][11][12][13]} In 1840, William Henry Drew translated the first book of the Tirukkural in prose. In 1852, he partially completed the second book, too, in prose. Along with his own English prose translation, his publication contained the original Tamil text, the Tamil commentary by Parimelazhagar and Ramanuja Kavirayar's amplification of the commentary. He thus covered chapters 1 through 63, translating 630 couplets.^[9] John Lazarus, a native missionary, revised Drew's work and completed the remaining portion, beginning from Chapter 64 through Chapter 133. Thus, Drew and Lazarus together made the first complete prose translation of the Tirukkural available in English. Meanwhile, there were two more verse translations made in 1872 and 1873 by Charles E. Gover and Edward Jewitt Robinson, respectively. While Gover translated only select couplets, Robinson translated the first two books of the Kural text. The first complete verse translation in English and the first complete English translation by a single author was achieved in 1886 by George Uglow Pope, whose work brought the Tirukkural to a wider audience of the western world.^[14]

The first English translation by a native scholar (i.e., scholar who is a native speaker of Tamil) was made in 1915 by T. Tirunavukkarasu, who translated 366 couplets into English. The first complete English translation by a native scholar was made the following year by V. V. S. Aiyar, who translated the entire work in prose. Aiyar's work is considered by various scholars, including Czech scholar Kamil Zvelebil, to be the most scholarly of all the English translations made until then, including those by native English scholars.^[2][15]

At least 24 complete translations were available in the English language by the end of the twentieth century, by both native and non-native scholars.^[9] By 2014, there were about 57 versions available in English, of which at least 30 were complete.^[16]

Comparison with European literature

In his introduction to the English translation, G. U. Pope compared the Kural to the works of Propertius and Martial and to the Latin elagiac verse. In his commentary, he quoted analogous passages from various authors such as Horace, Aeschylus, Dante Alighieri, William Shakespeare, Robert Browning, William Wordsworth, and Catullus.^[18]: 9 He added that what Archbishop Trench said of Saint Augustin is equally true of Valluvar:

He abounds in short and memorable, and if I might so call them, epigrammatic sayings, concentrating with a forceful brevity, the whole truth, which he desires to impart, into some single phrase, forging it into a polished shaft at once pointed to pierce, and barbed that it shall not lightly drop from the mind and memory.^[18]

Pope went on to composing a poem on the universality of Valluvar, hailing him as the "Bard of Universal Man".^[18]: 10

Criticisms on translations

The couplets of the Kural are inherently complex by virtue of their dense meaning within their terse structure. Thus, no translation can perfectly reflect the true nature of any given couplet of the Kural unless read and understood in its original Tamil form.^[19] Added to this inherent difficulty is the attempt by some scholars to either read their own ideas into the Kural couplets or deliberately misinterpret the message to make it conform to their preconceived notions. The translations by the Christian missionaries are often criticized for misinterpreting the text in order to conform it to Christian principles and beliefs. In August 2022, the governor of Tamil Nadu, R. N. Ravi, criticized G. U. Pope for "translating with the colonial objective to 'trivialise' the spiritual wisdom of India," resulting in a "de-spiritualised version" of the Kural text.^[20] According to V. Ramasamy, even the very first Latin translation of the text by Beschi is distorted. He writes, "Beschi is purposely distorting the message of the original when he renders பிறவாழி as 'the sea of miserable life' and the phrase பிறவிப்பெருங்கடல் as 'sea of this birth' which has been translated by others as 'the sea of many births'. Beschi means thus 'those who swim the vast sea of miseries'. The concept of rebirth or many births for the same soul is contrary to Christian principle and belief".^[9]

Scholars also criticize Pope for over-emphasising certain texts from ancient Tamil literature while downplaying, or even dismissing, others, both ancient and more recent.^[21] In his book Breaking India, Rajiv Malhotra writes of Pope's attempts to undermine Tamil spirituality. He writes of Pope's claims that all Tamil works are of Christian origin, and that Tamil culture has nothing to do with Indian culture, thereby forging a Dravidian identity that previously never existed.^[22]: 68

Less-known translations

The Kural has also been translated numerous times without getting published or reaching the masses. Sri Aurobindo, for instance, has translated fifteen couplets of the Kural, including all the ten couplets from the opening chapter (in a different order from the original) and five from the second chapter, in 1919 as part of his translations of various other ancient works.^[23]

See also

• Tirukkural translations
• List of Tirukkural translations by language
• List of translators into English

References

Published translations

• Pope, G. U. (1886). The Sacred Kurral of Tiruvalluva Nayanar (with Latin Translation By Fr. Beschi) (Original in Tamil with English and Latin Translations). New Delhi: Asian Educational Services, pp. i–xxviii, 408
• Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami. (1979). Tirukkural: The American English and Modern Tamil Translations of an Ethical Masterpiece. ISBN 978-8-1701-7390-8. Available from http://www.redlotusworld.org/resources/Tirukkural.pdf
• Padmanabhan, V. (2003). Thirukkural with English Explanation. Chennai: Manimekalai Prasuram, 280 pp.
• Murugan, V. (2009). Thirukkural in English. Chennai: Arivu Pathippagam, xiv + 272 pp.
• Guruparan, S. P. (2014). Thirukkural: English Translation. Chennai: Mayilavan Padhippagam, 416 pp.
• Venkatachalam, R. (2015). Thirukkural—Translation—Explanation: A Life Skills Coaching Approach. Gurgaon, India: Partridge Publishing India, 689 pp. ISBN 978-1-4828-4290-6.

Further reading

• Srirama Desikan, S. N. (1961). Tiruvalluvar's Tirukkural in Sanskrit slokas. Prabha Press. 77 pp.
• Manavalan, A. A. (2010). A Compendium of Tirukkural Translations in English (4 vols.). Chennai: Central Institute of Classical Tamil, ISBN 978-81-908000-2-0.

External links

• Tirukkural in Tamil and English—Valaitamil.com
• G. U. Pope's English Translation of the Tirukkural
• https://www.facebook.com/Tirukkural.in.6.languages/