Talk:Scholars of Hindu Languages, Arts & Law:Sant Tiruvaḷḷuvar (200 BCE)

By Vishal Agarwal

Another very ancient Hindu language is Tamil.Both Sanskrit and Tamil were created by Bhagavān Śiva from the two sides of his ḍamarū (drum). Scholars like Pāṇini wrote the grammar of Sanskrit, whereas Ṛṣis like Agastya wrote the grammar of Tamil. Therefore, Tamil is also considered as a sacred language of Hindu Dharm by some, along with Sanskrit.

A beautiful scripture in Tamil is the Kural of Sant Thiruvalluvar, who was a weaver by profession. The Kural contains beautiful teachings on how one can live according to Dharma. It has over 1300 verses. A giant statue of this saint has been erected at Kanyākumārī, which is at the southern tip of the Indian peninsula.

Nothing much is known about Thiruvalluvar except that he was probably a weaver by profession. It is said that his wife served her husband with a lot of respect. In fact, more stories about her wonderful character are narrated than about Thiruvalluvar himself.

Thiruvalluvar Statue – Monument of the Great Tamil Poet and Philosopher

To give an example of the teachings of the Kural, let us give below some of its verses on the importance of children in our lives:

• The greatest blessing in life is to give birth to children who are intelligent.
• The real wealth of a man is his children. And if he has done good karma in the past, he will get intelligent children.
• Far sweeter than the divine nectar (amṛta) is simple boiled rice stirred by the small hands of one’s own child.
• The sounds that one’s child makes are sweeter than the music from any flute or lute.
• Parents are the happiest when their kids become better than them. A mother is happy when her child is born. She is even happier when he grows up to be a fine adult and hears others praising her child.

From the Kural of Thiruvalluvar

Hindu saints started writing our scriptures in the Tamil language more than 2000 years ago. Some Tamil writings like the Tiruvāymoḻi are regarded as sacred as the Vedas themselves by some people. We have already described in the chapter on Ṛṣis how the Tamil language is also divine in origin just like Sanskrit.

In fact, Hindus have a very large number of books not only in Sanskrit and in Tamil, but also in many other languages like Hindi, Marathi, Telugu, Nepali, Bengali, Kannada, Javanese (from Indonesia), and Punjabi.