Tirukkural Text

Complete Text of Tirukkural

Table of Contents

Part I: Virtue

Introduction

The Praise of God

Kural-1
A, as its first of letters, every speech maintains;
The "Primal Deity" is first through all the world's domains.
As all letters have the letter A for their first, so the world has the eternal God for its first.

Kural-2
No fruit have men of all their studied lore,
Save they the 'Purely Wise One's' feet adore.
What Profit have those derived from learning, who worship not the good feet of Him who is possessed of pure knowledge ?

Kural-3
His feet, 'Who o'er the full-blown flower hath past,' who gain
In bliss long time shall dwell above this earthly plain.
They who are united to the glorious feet of Him who occupies swiftly the flower of the mind, shall flourish in the highest of worlds (heaven).

Kural-4
His foot, 'Whom want affects not, irks not grief,' who gain
Shall not, through every time, of any woes complain.
To those who meditate the feet of Him who is void of desire or aversion, evil shall never come.

Kural-5
The men, who on the 'King's' true praised delight to dwell,
Affects not them the fruit of deeds done ill or well.
The two-fold deeds that spring from darkness shall not adhere to those who delight in the true praise of God.

Kural-6
Long live they blest, who 've stood in path from falsehood freed;
His, 'Who quenched lusts that from the sense-gates five proceed'.
Those shall long proposer who abide in the faultless way of Him who has destroyed the five desires of the senses.

Kural-7
Unless His foot, 'to Whom none can compare,' men gain,
'Tis hard for mind to find relief from anxious pain.
Anxiety of mind cannot be removed, except from those who are united to the feet of Him who is incomparable.

Kural-8
Unless His feet 'the Sea of Good, the Fair and Bountiful,' men gain,
'Tis hard the further bank of being's changeful sea to attain.
None can swim the sea of vice, but those who are united to the feet of that gracious Being who is a sea of virtue.

Kural-9
Before His foot, 'the Eight-fold Excellence,' with unbent head,
Who stands, like palsied sense, is to all living functions dead.
The head that worships not the feet of Him who is possessed of eight attributes, is as useless as a sense without the power of sensation.

Kural-10
They swim the sea of births, the 'Monarch's' foot who gain;
None others reach the shore of being's mighty main.
None can swim the great sea of births but those who are united to the feet of God.

The Excellence of Rain

The Greatness of Ascetics

Assertion of the Strength of Virtue

Domestic Virtue

Domestic Life

The Goodness of the Help to Domestic Life

The Obtaining of Sons

The Possession of Love

Cherishing Guests

The Utterance of Pleasant Words

The Knowledge of Benefits Conferred: Gratitude

Impartiality

The Possession of Self-restraint

The Possession of Decorum

Not coveting another's Wife

The Possession of Patience, Forbearance

Not Envying

Not Coveting

Not Backbiting

The Not Speaking Profitless Words

Dread of Evil Deeds

The Knowledge of What is Befitting a Man's Position

Giving

Renown

Ascetic Virtue

The Possession of Benevolence

The Renunciation of Flesh

Penance

Inconsistent Conduct

The Absence of Fraud

Veracity

The not being Angry

Not doing Evil

Not killing

Instability

Renunciation

Knowledge of the True

The Extirpation of Desire

Fate

Fate

Part II: Wealth

Royalty

The Greatness of a King

Learning

Ignorance

Hearing

The Possession of Knowledge

The Correction of Faults

Seeking the Aid of Great Men

Avoiding mean Associations

Acting after due Consideration

The Knowledge of Power

Knowing the fitting Time

Knowing the Place

Selection and Confidence

Selection and Employment

Cherishing one's Kindred

Unforgetfulness

The Right Sceptre

The Cruel Sceptre

Absence of 'Terrorism'

Benignity

Detectives

Energy

Unsluggishness

Manly Effort

Hopefulness in Trouble

Ministers of state

The Office of Minister of state

Power in Speech

Purity in Action

Power in Action

The Method of Acting

The Envoy

Conduct in the Presence of the King

The Knowledge of Indications

The Knowledge of the Council Chamber

Not to dread the Council

The Essentials of a State

The Land

The Fortification

Way of Accumulating Wealth

The Excellence of an Army

Military Spirit

Friendship

Investigation in forming Friendships

Familiarity

Evil Friendship

Unreal Friendship

Folly

Ignorance

Hostility

The Might of Hatred

Knowing the Quality of Hate

Enmity within

Not Offending the Great

Being led by Women

Wanton Women

Not Drinking Palm-Wine

Gaming (Gambling)

Medicine

Miscellaneous

Nobility

Honour

Greatness

Perfectness

Courtesy

Wealth without Benefaction

Shame

The Way of Maintaining the Family

Agriculture

Poverty

Mendicancy

The Dread of Mendicancy

Baseness

Part III: Love

The Gandharva Marriage (The Pre-marital love)

Mental Disturbance caused by the Beauty of the Princess

Recognition of the Signs (of Mutual Love)

Rejoicing in the Embrace

The Praise of her Beauty

Declaration of Love's special Excellence

The Abandonment of Reserve

The Announcement of the Rumour

Wedded Love (The Post-marital love)

Separation unendurable

Complainings

Eyes consumed with Grief

The Pallid Hue

The Solitary Anguish

Sad Memories

The Visions of the Night

Lamentations at Eventide

Wasting Away

Soliloquy

Reserve Overcome

Mutual Desire

The Reading of the Signs

Desire for Reunion

Expostulation with Oneself

Pouting

Feigned Anger

The Pleasures of 'Temporary Variance'

References

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