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92-514: A host is a person responsible for guests at an event or for providing hospitality during it. Host may also refer to: Hospitality Hospitality ethics is a discipline that studies this usage of hospitality. "Hospitality" derives from the Latin hospes , meaning "host", "guest", or "stranger". Hospes is formed from hostis , which means "stranger" or "enemy" (the latter being where terms like "hostile" derive). By metonymy ,

184-441: A Brahmin father. Mu Raghava Iyengar speculated that "valluva" in his name is a variation of "vallabha", the designation of a royal officer. S. Vaiyapuri Pillai derived his name from "valluvan" (a Paraiyar caste of royal drummers) and theorized that he was "the chief of the proclaiming boys analogous to a trumpet-major of an army". The traditional biographies not only are inconsistent, but also contain incredulous claims about

276-460: A 16th-century Jain text. "It's the author's innate nature to select the best virtues found in all the known literature and present them in a manner that is acceptable to all." — Parimelalhagar about Valluvar, 13th century CE Valluvar's writings, according to scholars, also suggest that he might have belonged to Hinduism. Hindu teachers have mapped his teachings in the Kural literature to

368-458: A feature common to "international and Indian folklore". The alleged low birth, high birth and being a pariah in the traditional accounts are also doubtful. Traditionally, Valluvar is believed to have married to Vasuki and had a friend and a disciple named Elelasingan . In a manner similar to speculations of the author's biography, there has been much speculation about his religion with no historical evidence. In determining Valluvar's religion,

460-638: A guest is effectively regarded as a semi-god, admired above all other human relations. A reflection of the Albanian solemn adherence to their traditional customs of hospitality and besa is notably considered to be their treatment of Jews at the time of the Italian and German occupation during World War II . Indeed, Jews in hiding in Albania were not betrayed or handed over to the Germans by Albanians, and as

552-703: A hospitality that is never formal or superficial but identified by 'gentleness' and 'reverence'." Some Western countries have developed a host culture for immigrants based on the Bible . In some Christian belief, a guest should never be made to feel that they are causing undue extra labor by their presence. One of the main principles of Pashtunwali is Melmastyā́ . This is the display of hospitality and profound respect to all visitors (regardless of race, religion, national affiliation, or economic status) without any hope of remuneration or favour. Pashtuns will go to great lengths to show their hospitality. In Islam, there

644-508: A man rather than a king. The text is a comprehensive pragmatic work that presents philosophy in the first part, political science in the second and poetics in the third. Of the three books of the Kural literature, the second one on politics and kingdom ( poruḷ ) is about twice the size of the first, and three times that of the third. In the 700 couplets on poruḷ (53 percent of the text), Valluvar mostly discusses statecraft and warfare. While other Sangam texts approved of, and even glorified,

736-570: A manner similar to the Hindu text Arthasastra . For example, according to the text, an army has a duty to kill in battle, and a king must execute criminals for justice. Valluvar's mentioning of God Vishnu in couplets 610 and 1103 and Goddess Lakshmi in couplets 167, 408, 519, 565, 568, 616, and 617 suggests the Vaishnavite beliefs of the author. P. R. Natarajan lists at least 24 different usage of Hindu origin in 29 different couplets across

828-422: A model to understand hospitality that divides unconditional hospitality from conditional hospitality. Over the centuries, philosophers have considered the problem of hospitality. To Derrida, there is an implicit hostility in hospitality, as it requires treating a person as a stranger, distancing them from oneself; Derrida labels this intrinsic conflict with the portmanteau "hostipitality". However, hospitality offers

920-483: A paradoxical situation (like language), since the inclusion of those who are welcomed in the sacred law of hospitality implies that others will be rejected. Julia Kristeva alerts readers to the dangers of "perverse hospitality", takes advantage of the vulnerability of aliens to dispossess them. Hospitality reduces the tension in the process of host-guest encounters, producing a liminal zone that combines curiosity about others and fear of strangers. Hospitality centres on

1012-467: A person's request for refuge was expected not only to provide food and shelter for guests but also to make sure that they did not come to harm under their care. In Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, and the Netherlands, it is often considered inappropriate to feed children from another family. Visiting children may be asked to leave at dinnertime or to wait in another room, or the host family may call

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1104-440: A pile of food in the market. He put his hand inside it and felt dampness, although the surface was dry. He said: "O owner of the food, what is this?" The man said, "It was damaged by rain, O Messenger of God." He said, "Why did you not put the rain-damaged food on top so that people could see it! Whoever cheats us is not one of us." Celtic societies also valued hospitality, especially in terms of protection. A host who granted

1196-558: A result, there were eleven times more Jews at the end of the WWII than at the beginning of it in Albania. In Ancient Greece , hospitality was a right, with the host being expected to make sure the needs of his guests were met. Conversely, the guest was expected to abide by a set code of behaviour. The ancient Greek term xenia —or theoxenia when a god was involved—expressed this ritualized guest-friendship relation. This relationship

1288-453: A specialist in any particular field. He never indulged in specifics but always stressed on the basic principles of morality. This can be seen across the Kural text: while Valluvar talks about worshiping God, he refrains from mentioning the way of worshiping; he refers to God as an "ultimate reality" without calling him by any name; he talks about land, village, country, kingdom, and king but never refers them by any name; though he mentions about

1380-441: A stranger had welcomed him. He expanded the meaning of brother and neighbor to include the stranger, that he or she be treated with hospitality. Pope John Paul II wrote: "Welcoming our brothers and sisters with care and willingness must not be limited to extraordinary occasions but must become for all believers a habit of service in their daily lives." He also said, "Only those who have opened their hearts to Christ can offer

1472-535: A total of 1,330 couplets. All the couplets are in kural venba metre , and all the 133 chapters have an ethical theme and are grouped into three parts, or "books": Tirukkuṟaḷ "Virtue will confer heaven and wealth; what greater source of happiness can man possess?" (Kural 31; Drew , 1840). The book on aṟam (virtue) contains 380 verses, that of poruḷ (wealth) has 700 and that of inbam or kāmam (love) has 250. Each kural or couplet contains exactly seven words, known as cir s, with four cir s on

1564-399: A universal, moral and practical approach to life. According to Mahadevan, Valluvar is more considerate about the substance than the linguistic appeal of his writing throughout the work. The Kural text is marked by pragmatic idealism , focused on "man in the totality of his relationships". Despite being a classic, the work has little scope for any poetic excellence. According to Zvelebil,

1656-460: A violent offensive, at the right place and right time, when the situation so demands and particularly against morally weak and corrupt kingdoms. A good and strong kingdom must be protected with forts made of thick, high and impenetrable walls. The text recommends a hierarchical military organization staffed with fearless soldiers who are willing to die in war, drawing from the Hindu concepts of non-mystic realism and readiness for war. "The sceptre of

1748-403: A wide range of social and political topics such as king, ministers, taxes, justice, forts, war, greatness of army and soldier's honor, death sentence for the wicked, agriculture, education, and abstinence from alcohol and intoxicants. It also includes chapters on friendship, love, sexual unions, and domestic life. The text effectively denounced previously held misbeliefs that were common during

1840-405: Is "undoubtedly patterned" and "very carefully structured." There are no structural gaps in the text, with every couplet indispensable for the structured whole. There are two distinct meanings for every couplet, namely, a structural one and a proverbial one. In their isolated form, that is, when removed from the context of the 10-couplet chapter, the couplets lose their structural meaning but retain

1932-563: Is God". This principle is shown in a number of stories where a guest is revealed to be a god who rewards the provider of hospitality. From this stems, the Indian or Nepalese practice of graciousness towards guests at home and in all social situations. The Tirukkuṛaḷ , an ancient Indian work on ethics and morality , explains the ethics of hospitality in verses 81 through 90, dedicating a separate chapter to it (chapter 9). Judaism praises hospitality to strangers and guests, based largely on

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2024-417: Is a strong emphasis on expressing goodwill through the phrase peace be upon you Assalamu Alaikum . This practice is rooted in the teachings of Muhammad. These teachings extend to the treatment of guests and even prisoners of war. Authentic sources and Quranic verses underscore the importance of showing kindness and peace towards these people. Abu Aziz ibn Umair reported: "I was among the prisoners of war on

2116-423: Is based on the language of the text, its allusions to the earlier works, and its borrowing from some Sanskrit treatises. Zvelebil notes that the text features several grammatical innovations that are absent in the older Sangam literature. The text also features a higher number of Sanskrit loan words compared with these older texts. According to Zvelebil, besides being part of the ancient Tamil literary tradition,

2208-448: Is common for all, irrespective of whether the person is a bearer of palanquin or the rider in it. According to Albert Schweitzer , the idea that good must be done for its own sake comes from various couplets across the Kural text. In his 1999 work, Japanese Indologist Takanobu Takahashi noted that Valluvar dealt with virtues in terms of good rather than in terms of caste-based duties and when he discussed politics he addressed simply

2300-735: Is implicit in the last five chapters of Book I. The components of aṟam , poruḷ and inbam encompasses both the agam and puram genres of the Tamil literary tradition as explained in the Tolkappiyam. According to Sharma, dharma ( aṟam ) refers to ethical values for the holistic pursuit of life, artha ( poruḷ ) refers to wealth obtained in ethical manner guided by dharma , and kāma ( Inbam ) refers to pleasure and fulfilment of one's desires, also guided by dharma . The corresponding goals of poruḷ and inbam are desirable, yet both need to be regulated by aṟam , according to J. Arunadevi. On

2392-495: Is no evidence of later revisions or insertions into the couplets. Thus, in spite of these later subdivisions by the medieval commentators, both the domestic and ascetic virtues in Book I are addressed to the householder or commoner. As Yu Hsi puts it, "Valluvar speaks to the duties of the commoner acting in different capacities as son, father, husband, friend, citizen, and so forth." According to A. Gopalakrishnan, ascetic virtues in

2484-427: Is praised by scholars for his innate nature to select the virtues found in all the known works and present them in a manner that is considered common and acceptable to everyone. The author is remembered and cherished for his universal secular values, and his treatise has been called Ulaga Podhu Marai (the universal scripture). The Kural is structured into 133 chapters, each containing 10 couplets (or kurals), for

2576-559: Is the work of a single author because it has a consistent "language, formal structure and content-structure", states Zvelebil. Neither is the Kural an anthology nor is there any later additions to the text. The division into three parts ( muppāl ) is probably the author's work. However, the subdivisions beyond these three, known as iyal s, as found in some surviving manuscripts and commentaries, are likely later additions because there are variations between these subtitles found in manuscripts and those in historical commentaries. Starting from

2668-449: Is to provide a just rule, be impartial and have courage in protecting his subjects and in meting out justice and punishment. The text supports death penalty for the wicked in the book of poruḷ , but does so only after emphasizing non-killing as every individual's personal virtue in the book of aṟam . The Kural cautions against tyranny, appeasement and oppression, with the suggestion that such royal behavior causes natural disasters, depletes

2760-422: Is venerated for his selection of virtues found in the known literature and presenting them in a manner that is considered common and acceptable to all. The Tamil people and the government of Tamil Nadu have long celebrated and upheld the text with reverence. The term Tirukkuṟaḷ is a compound word made of two individual terms, tiru and kuṟaḷ . Tiru is an honorific Tamil term that corresponds to

2852-602: The Kural ( Tamil : குறள் ), is a classic Tamil language text consisting of 1,330 short couplets, or kurals , of seven words each. The text is divided into three books with aphoristic teachings on virtue ( aram ), wealth ( porul ) and love ( inbam ), respectively. It is widely acknowledged for its universality and secular nature. Its authorship is traditionally attributed to Valluvar , also known in full as Thiruvalluvar. The text has been dated variously from 300 BCE to 5th century CE. The traditional accounts describe it as

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2944-507: The Bhagavad Gita , the Kural is one of the earliest systems of Indian epistemology and metaphysics . The work largely reflects the first three of the four ancient Indian aims in life, known as purushaarthas , viz., virtue ( dharma ), wealth ( artha ) and love ( kama ). The fourth aim, namely, salvation ( moksha ) has been omitted from being dealt with as the fourth book since it does not lend itself to didactic treatment, but

3036-460: The Colonial era , to claim the work and its author as one of their own. The 19th-century Christian missionary George Uglow Pope , for example, claimed that Valluvar must have lived in the 9th century CE, come in contact with Christian teachers such as Pantaenus of Alexandria , imbibed Christian ideas and peculiarities of Alexandrian teachers and then wrote the "wonderful Kurral" with an "echo of

3128-587: The Sangam era and permanently redefined the cultural values of the Tamil land . The Kural has influenced scholars and leaders across the ethical, social, political, economic, religious, philosophical, and spiritual spheres over its history. These include Ilango Adigal , Kambar , Leo Tolstoy , Mahatma Gandhi , Albert Schweitzer , Ramalinga Swamigal , V. O. Chidambaram Pillai , Karl Graul , George Uglow Pope , Alexander Piatigorsky , and Yu Hsi . The work remains

3220-484: The iyal subdivisions, the grouping of the couplets into chapters is the author's. Every topic that Valluvar handles in his work are presented in ten couplets forming a chapter, and the chapter is usually named using a keyword found in the couplets in it. Exceptions to this convention are found in all the three books of the Kural text as in Chapter 1 in the Book of Aram, Chapter 78 in the Book of Porul, and Chapter 117 in

3312-437: The late Sangam works , known in Tamil as Patiṉeṇkīḻkaṇakku . The Kural has been dated variously from 300 BCE to 5th century CE. According to traditional accounts, it was the last work of the third Sangam and was subjected to a divine test, which it passed. The scholars who believe this tradition, such as Somasundara Bharathiar and M. Rajamanickam, date the text to as early as 300 BCE. Historian K. K. Pillay assigned it to

3404-435: The "wise saying, moral maxim" sense. In isolation, a couplet is "a perfect form, possessing, in varying degree, the prosodic and rhetoric qualities of gnomic poetry." Within the chapter-structure, the couplets acquire their structural meaning and reveal the more complete teaching of the author. This, Zvelebil states, is the higher pattern in the Kural text, and finally, in relation to the entire work, they acquire perfection in

3496-655: The 'Sermon of the Mount'." This theory, however, is ahistorical and discredited. According to Zvelebil, the ethics and ideas in Valluvar's work are not Christian ethics . Albert Schweitzer hints that "the dating of the Kural has suffered, along with so many other literary and historical dates, philosophies and mythologies of India, a severe mauling at the hands of the Christian Missionaries, anxious to post-date all irrefutable examples of religious maturity to

3588-400: The 10th and the 13th centuries CE. Of these, only the works of Manakkudavar, Paridhi, Kaalingar, Pari Perumal, and Parimelalhagar are available today. The works of Dharumar, Dhaamatthar, and Nacchar are only partially available. The commentaries by Thirumalaiyar and Mallar are lost completely. The best known among these are the commentaries by Parimelalhagar, Kaalingar, and Manakkudavar. Among

3680-404: The Albanian traditional customary law ( Kanun ). Hospitality, honor, and besa , are the pillars of the northern Albanian tribal society . Numerous foreign visitors have historically documented the hospitality of both northern and southern Albanians. Foreign travelers and diplomats, and a number of renowned historians and anthropologists have, in particular, "solemnized, romanticized, and glorified"

3772-464: The Book of Inbam, where the words used in title of the chapters are not found anywhere in the chapter's couplets. Here again, the titles of all the chapters of the Kural text are given by Valluvar himself. According to S. N. Kandasamy, the naming of the first chapter of the Kural text is in accord with the conventions used in the Tolkappiyam . According to Zvelebil, the content of the Kural text

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3864-472: The Christian era." Valluvar is thought to have belonged to either Jainism or Hinduism . This can be observed in his treatment of the concept of ahimsa or non-violence , which is the principal concept of both the religions. In the 1819 translation, Francis Whyte Ellis mentions that the Tamil community debates whether Valluvar was a Jain or Hindu. According to Zvelebil, Valluvar's treatment of

3956-583: The Jaina tradition associates the work with Kunda Kunda Acharya , also known as Elachariyar in the Tamil region, the chief of the Southern Pataliputra Dravidian Sanghaat, who lived around the latter half of the first century BCE and the former half of the first century CE. Nevertheless, early Digambara or Śvetāmbara Jaina texts do not mention Valluvar or the Kural text. The first claim of Valluvar as an authority appears in

4048-531: The Kanun as a basic societal institution; its exceptional altruistic appeal as well as application, conferred with the best available resources, regardless of the fact that the remote, harsh, and geographically inhospitable territory of the northern Albanian mountains is typically scarce in material resources. The Albanian law of hospitality is simply clarified by the Kanun: "The house of the Albanian belongs to God and

4140-502: The Kural does not mean renunciation of household life or pursuing of the conventional ascetic life, but only refers to giving up immoderate desires and having self-control that is expected of every individual. According to Joanne Punzo Waghorne, professor of religion and South Asian studies at the Syracuse University , the Kural is "a homily on righteous living for the householder." Like the three-part division, and unlike

4232-690: The Kural text. According to Purnalingam Pillai, who is known for his critique of Brahminism , a rational analysis of the Kural text suggests that Valluvar was a Hindu, and not a Jain. Matthieu Ricard believes Valluvar belonged to the Shaivite tradition of South India. According to Thomas Manninezhath – a theology scholar who grew up in South India, the Tirukkuṟaḷ is believed by the natives to reflect Advaita Vedanta philosophy and teaches an "Advaitic way of life". Notwithstanding these debates, Valluvar

4324-462: The Kural text. Despite knowing its seemingly contradictory nature from a purist point of view, the author is said to employ this method to emphasise the importance of the given code of ethic. Following are some of the instances where Valluvar is quoted as employing pseudo-contradictions to expound the virtues. The ethical connections between these verses are widely elucidated ever since the medieval commentaries. For example, Parimelalhagar elucidates

4416-500: The Latin word hospitalis means a guest-chamber, guest's lodging, an inn. Hospes/hostis is thus the root for the English words host , hospitality , hospice , hostel , and hotel . In ancient cultures, hospitality involved welcoming the stranger and offering them food, shelter, and safety. Among Albanians , hospitality ( Albanian : mikpritja ) is an indissoluble element of their traditional society, also regulated by

4508-456: The Sanskrit term sri meaning "holy, sacred, excellent, honorable, and beautiful." The term tiru has as many as 19 different meanings in Tamil. Kuṟaḷ means something that is "short, concise, and abridged." Etymologically, kuṟaḷ is the shortened form of kuṟaḷ pāttu , which is derived from kuruvenpāttu , one of the two Tamil poetic forms explained by the Tolkappiyam ,

4600-453: The author asserts as the most important economic activity later in Book II of the Kural text. "The greatest virtue of all is non-killing; truthfulness cometh only next." (Kural 323; Aiyar , 1916). The three books of the Kural base aṟam or dharma (virtue) as their cornerstone, resulting in the work being collectively referred to simply as Aṟam . Valluvar holds that aṟam

4692-472: The author of the Kural text. Along with various versions of his birth circumstances, many state he went to a mountain and met the legendary Agastya and other sages. There are also accounts claiming that, during his return journey, Valluvar sat under a tree whose shadow sat still over him and did not move the entire day, he killed a demon, and many more. Scholars consider these and all associated aspects of these hagiographic stories to be fiction and ahistorical,

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4784-414: The author was also a part of the "one great Indian ethical, didactic tradition" as a few of the verses in the Kural text are "undoubtedly" translations of the verses of earlier Indian texts. In the 19th century and the early 20th century, European writers and missionaries variously dated the text and its author to between 400 and 1000 CE. According to Blackburn, the "current scholarly consensus" dates

4876-554: The author), Poyyamoli (the falseless word), Vayurai valttu (truthful praise), Teyvanul (the divine book), Potumarai (the common Veda), Valluva Maalai (garland made by the author), Tamil Manunool (Tamil ethical treatise), Tiruvalluva Payan (fruit of the author), Muppal (the three-fold path), and Tamilmarai (the Tamil Veda). The work is traditionally grouped under the Eighteen Lesser Texts series of

4968-646: The belief that strangers should be assisted and protected while traveling. However, some disagree. Anthony Pagden describes how the concept of hospitality was historically manipulated to legitimate the conquest of the Americas by imposing the right of free transit, which was conducive to the formation of the modern nation state . This suggests that hospitality is a political institution, which can be ideologically deformed to oppress others. Tirukku%E1%B9%9Ba%E1%B8%B7 The Tirukkuṟaḷ ( Tamil : திருக்குறள் , lit.   'sacred verses'), or shortly

5060-516: The chapters on moral vegetarianism and non-killing reflects the Jain precepts. Certain epithets for God and ascetic values found in the text are found in Jainism, states Zvelebil. He theorizes that Valluvar was probably "a learned Jain with eclectic leanings", who was well acquainted with the earlier Tamil literature and also had knowledge of the Sanskrit texts. According to A. Chakravarthy Nainar,

5152-465: The colonial era literature, all inferred from selective sections of his text or hagiographies published since the colonial era started in Tamil Nadu. One traditional version claims that he was a Paraiyar weaver. Another theory is that he must have been from the agricultural caste of Vellalars because he extols agriculture in his work. Another states he was an outcaste, born to a Pariah woman and

5244-536: The crucial test to be applied according to M. S. Purnalingam Pillai is to analyze what religious philosophy he has not condemned, adding that Valluvar has "not said a word against" the Saiva Siddhanta principles. The Kural text is aphoristic and non-denominational in nature and can be selectively interpreted in many ways. This has led almost every major religious group in India, including Christianity during

5336-519: The day of the battle of Badr . Muhammad had said, 'I enjoin you to treat the captives well.' After I accepted Islam, I was among the Ansar (Inhabitants of Madinah ) and when the time of lunch or dinner arrived, I would feed dates to the prisoners for I had been fed bread due to the command of Muhammad." Good hospitality is crucial in Islam even in business. According to another report, Muhammad passed by

5428-451: The earliest commentaries to the Kural text. Dedicated commentaries on the Kural text began to appear about and after the 10th century CE. There were at least ten medieval commentaries of which only six have survived into the modern era. The ten medieval commentators include Manakkudavar , Dharumar , Dhamatthar , Nacchar , Paridhiyar , Thirumalaiyar , Mallar , Pari Perumal , Kaalingar , and Parimelalhagar , all of whom lived between

5520-442: The early 1st century CE. According to Kamil Zvelebil , a Czech scholar of Tamil literature, these early dates such as 300 BCE to 1 BCE are unacceptable and not supported by evidence within the text. The diction and grammar of the Kural, and Valluvar's indebtedness to some earlier Sanskrit sources, suggest that he lived after the "early Tamil bardic poets," but before Tamil bhakti poets era. In 1959, S. Vaiyapuri Pillai assigned

5612-626: The entire work, with the shortest ones (kurals 833 and 1304) containing 23 letters and the longest ones (kurals 957 and 1246) containing 39 letters each. Among the 133 chapters, the fifth chapter is the longest with 339 letters and the 124th chapter is the shortest with 280 letters. Of the 1,330 couplets in the text, 40 couplets relate to god, rain, ascetics, and virtue; 340 on fundamental everyday virtues of an individual; 250 on royalty; 100 on ministers of state; 220 on essential requirements of administration; 130 on social morality, both positive and negative; and 250 on human love and passion. Along with

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5704-512: The ethical connections between couplets 380 and 620, 481 and 1028, 373 and 396, and 383 and 672 in his commentary. The Kural is one of the most reviewed of all works in Tamil literature , and almost every notable scholar of Tamil has written exegesis or commentaries (explanation in prose or verse), known in Tamil as urai , on it. Some of the Tamil literature that was composed after the Kural quote or borrow its couplets in their own texts. According to Aravindan, these texts may be considered as

5796-475: The examples of Abraham and Lot in the Book of Genesis ( Genesis 18:1–8 and 19:1–8 ). In Hebrew, the practice is called hachnasat orchim , meaning "welcoming guests". Besides other expectations, hosts are expected to provide nourishment, comfort, and entertainment for their guests, and at the end of the visit, hosts customarily escort their guests out of their home, wishing them a safe journey. Abraham set

5888-461: The first line and three on the second, following the kural metre . A cir is a single or a combination of more than one Tamil word. For example, the term Tirukkuṟaḷ is a cir formed by combining the two words tiru and kuṟaḷ . The Kural text has a total of 9310 cir s made of 12,000 Tamil words, of which about 50 words are from Sanskrit and the remaining are Tamil original words. A manual count has shown that there are in total 42,194 letters in

5980-472: The following subdivisions or iyal s are found in Parimelalhagar 's version, which greatly varies from that of Manakkudavar : Modern scholars and publishers chiefly follow Parimelalhagar's model for couplet numbering, chapter ordering, and grouping the chapters into iyal s. Such subdivisions are likely later additions, but the couplets themselves have been preserved in the original form and there

6072-472: The four immoral deeds of meat-eating , alcohol consumption , polygamy , and prostitution , the Kural literature strongly condemns these as crimes, reportedly for the first time in the history of the Tamil land . In addition to these, the Kural also strongly proscribes gambling. The Kural is based on the doctrine of ahimsa . According to Schweitzer, the Kural "stands for the commandment not to kill and not to damage." Accordingly, Valluvar dictates

6164-414: The guest." Which means that the guest – who represents the supreme ethical category – has a greater role than the master of the house himself. The guest's role is even more important than blood, because according to custom there is the possibility to pardon the man who spilled the blood of one's father or one's son, but a man who has spilled the blood of a guest cannot ever been pardoned. In Albanian tradition

6256-722: The hero as "a one-woman man" without concubines. In a social and political context, the Kural text glorifies valour and victory during war and recommends a death sentence for the wicked only as a means of justice. According to Kaushik Roy, the Kural text in substance is a classic on realism and pragmatism, and it is not a mystic, purely philosophical document. Valluvar presents his theory of state using six elements: army ( patai ), subjects ( kuti ), treasure ( kul ), ministers ( amaiccu ), allies ( natpu ), and forts ( aran ). Valluvar also recommends forts and other infrastructure, supplies and food storage in preparation for siege. A king and his army must always be ready for war, and should launch

6348-481: The hospitality of the northern Albanian highlanders. Some reasons that have been provided to explain the admiration of the Albanian hospitality by foreign visitors are: the rituals and forms in which it is expressed; its universal application with uncompromising protection of the guest, even in the case of blood feud ( gjakmarrje ) between the host and the guest; its central role as a moral principle in Albanian society and individual life, also regulated and sanctified in

6440-442: The householder to renounce the eating of meat "in order that he may become a man of grace." While the Bible and other Abrahamic texts condemns only the taking away of human life, the Kural is cited for unequivocally and exclusively condemning the "literal taking away of life," regardless of whether it is human or animal. The greatest of personal virtues according to the Kural text is non-killing , followed by veracity , and

6532-565: The king is the firm support of the Vedas of the Brahmin, and of all virtues therein described." (Kural 543; John Lazarus 1885 & A. K. Ananthanathan 1994 ). The Kural text does not recommend democracy; rather it accepts a royalty with ministers bound to a code of ethics and a system of justice. The king in the text, states K. V. Nagarajan, is assigned the "role of producing, acquiring, conserving, and dispensing wealth". The king's duty

6624-844: The last work of the third Sangam , but linguistic analysis suggests a later date of 450 to 500 CE and that it was composed after the Sangam period. The Kural text is among the earliest systems of Indian epistemology and metaphysics. The work is traditionally praised with epithets and alternative titles, including "the Tamil Veda" and "the Divine Book." Written on the ideas of ahimsa , it emphasizes non-violence and moral vegetarianism as virtues for an individual. In addition, it highlights virtues such as truthfulness, self-restraint, gratitude, hospitality, kindness, goodness of spouse, duty, giving, and so forth, besides covering

6716-490: The medieval era, commentators have multifariously divided the Kural text into different iyal sub-divisions, grouping the Kural chapters diversely under them. The idea of subdividing the Tirukkural into iyal sub-divisions was first put forth by a Tiruvalluva Maalai verse attributed to Nanpalur Sirumedhaviyar . The medieval commentators have variously grouped the chapters of Book I into three and four iyal s, grouping

6808-430: The most translated, the most cited, and the most citable of Tamil literary works. The text has been translated into at least 57 Indian and non-Indian languages, making it one of the most translated ancient works . Ever since it came to print for the first time in 1812, the Kural text has never been out of print. The Kural is considered a masterpiece and one of the most important texts of the Tamil literature . Its author

6900-415: The original chapters diversely under these divisions and thus changing the order of the chapters widely; while Parimelalhagar divided it into three iyal s, others divided it into four, with some 20th-century commentators going up to six. Book II has been variously subdivided between three and six iyal s. The chapters of Book III have been variously grouped between two and five iyal s. For example,

6992-494: The other one being neduvenpāttu . According to Miron Winslow , kuṟaḷ is used as a literary term to indicate "a metrical line of 2 feet, or a distich or couplet of short lines, the first of 4 and the second of 3 feet." Thus, Tirukkuṟaḷ literally comes to mean "sacred couplets." The work is highly cherished in the Tamil culture, as reflected by its twelve traditional titles: Tirukkuṟaḷ (the sacred kural), Uttaravedam (the ultimate Veda ), Tiruvalluvar (eponymous with

7084-453: The rain for being the vitalizer of all life forms on earth. It proceeds to describe the qualities of a righteous person, before concluding the introduction by emphasizing the value of aṟam or virtue. It continues to treat aṟam in every action in life, supplementing it with a chapter on predestination. Valluvar extols rain next only to God for it provides food and serves as the basis of a stable economic life by aiding in agriculture, which

7176-717: The same lines, Amaladass concludes that the Kural expresses that dharma and artha should not be separated from one another. According to Indian philosophical tradition, one must remain unattached to wealth and possessions, which can either be transcended or sought with detachment and awareness, and pleasure needs to be fulfilled consciously and without harming anyone. The Indian tradition also holds that there exists an inherent tension between artha and kama . Thus, wealth and pleasure must be pursued with an "action with renunciation" ( Nishkama Karma ), that is, one must act without craving in order to resolve this tension. The content of Tirukkuṟaḷ , according to Zvelebil: The Kural text

7268-567: The standard as providing three things: The initial letters of these Hebrew words spell Aishel ( Genesis 21:33 ). In Christianity , hospitality is a virtue . It is a reminder of sympathy for strangers and a rule to welcome visitors. This is a virtue found in the Old Testament , with, for example, the custom of the foot washing of visitors or the kiss of peace . Jesus taught in the New Testament that those who had welcomed

7360-403: The state's wealth and ultimately results in the loss of power and prosperity. In the sphere of business, a study employing hermeneutics concludes that the Kural advocates a consciousness and spirit-centered approach to the subject of business ethics on the basis of eternal values and moral principles that should govern the conduct of business leaders. Valluvar remained a generalist rather than

7452-448: The teachings found in Hindu texts. The three parts that the Kural is divided into, namely, aṟam (virtue), poruḷ (wealth) and inbam (love), aiming at attaining veedu (ultimate salvation), follow, respectively, the four foundations of Hinduism, namely, dharma , artha , kama and moksha . While the text extols the virtue of non-violence, it also dedicates many of 700 poruḷ couplets to various aspects of statecraft and warfare in

7544-536: The teachings in the Kural text, according to Zvelebil, are "undoubtedly" based on the then extant Sanskrit works such as the Arthashastra and Manusmriti (also called the Manavadharmasastra ). In his treatise of Tamil literary history published in 1974, Zvelebil states that the Kural text does not belong to the Sangam period and dates it to somewhere between 450 and 500 CE. His estimate

7636-547: The text and the author to approximately 500 CE. In 1921, in the face of incessant debate on the precise date, the Tamil Nadu government officially declared 31 BCE as the year of Valluvar at a conference presided over by Maraimalai Adigal . On 18 January 1935, the Valluvar Year was added to the calendar. "The book without a name by an author without a name." — E. S. Ariel , 1848 The Kural text

7728-422: The text does not feature "true and great poetry" throughout the work, except, notably, in the third book , which deals with love and pleasure. This emphasis on substance rather than poetry, according to scholars, suggests that Valluvar's main aim was not to produce a work of art, but rather an instructive text focused on wisdom, justice, and ethics. The Kural text begins with an invocation of God and then praises

7820-462: The totality of their structure. In terms of structural flow, the text journeys the reader from "the imperfect, incomplete" state of man implicit in the early chapters to the "physically, morally, intellectually and emotionally perfect" state of man living as a husband and citizen, states Zvelebil. In poetic terms, it fuses verse and aphoristic form in diction in a "pithy, vigorous, forceful and terse" manner. Zvelebil calls it an ethics text that expounds

7912-450: The two greatest sins that Valluvar feels very strongly are ingratitude and meat-eating . According to J. M. Nallaswamy Pillai, the Kural differs from every other work on morality in that it follows ethics, surprisingly a divine one, even in its Book of Love. In the words of Gopalkrishna Gandhi , Valluvar maintains his views on personal morality even in the Book of Love, where one can normally expect greater poetic leniency, by describing

8004-567: The value of reading and reciting scriptures, he never names them; he talks about the values of charity without laying down the rules for it; though he repeatedly emphasizes about the importance of learning, he never says what is to be learnt; he recommends taxation in governance but does not suggest any proportion of collection. Scholars claim that Valluvar seldom shows any concern as to what similes and superlatives he used earlier while writing later chapters, purposely allowing for some repetitions and apparent contradictions in ideas one can find in

8096-692: The visitor's parents and ask for permission. In the West today hospitality is rarely a matter of protection and survival and is more associated with etiquette and entertainment . However, it still involves showing respect for one's guests, providing for their needs, and treating them as equals. Cultures and subcultures vary in the extent to which one is expected to show hospitality to strangers, as opposed to personal friends or members of one's ingroup . In anthropology, hospitality has been analyzed as an unequal relation between hosts and guests, mediated through various forms of exchange . Jacques Derrida offers

8188-759: The work to around or after the 6th century CE. His proposal is based on the evidence that the Kural text contains a large proportion of Sanskrit loan words, shows awareness and indebtedness to some Sanskrit texts best dated to the first half of the 1st millennium CE, and the grammatical innovations in the language of the Kural literature. Pillai published a list of 137 Sanskrit loan words in the Kural text. Later scholars such as Thomas Burrow and Murray Barnson Emeneau show that 35 of these are of Dravidian origin and not Sanskrit loan words. Zvelebil states that an additional few have uncertain etymology and that future studies may prove those to be Dravidian. The 102 remaining loan words from Sanskrit are "not negligible", and some of

8280-494: Was authored by Thiruvalluvar ( lit. Saint Valluvar). He is known by various other names including Poyyil Pulavar, Mudharpavalar, Deivappulavar, Nayanar, Devar, Nanmukanar, Mathanubangi, Sennabbodhakar, and Perunavalar. There is negligible authentic information available about Valluvar's life. For all practical purposes, neither his actual name nor the original title of his work can be determined with certainty. The Kural text itself does not name its author. The name Thiruvalluvar

8372-550: Was codified in the Homeric epics, and especially in the Odyssey . In Greek society, a person's ability to abide by the laws of hospitality determined nobility and social standing. The ancient Greeks, since the time of Homer, believed that the goddess of hospitality and hearth was Hestia , one of the original six Olympians . In India and Nepal , hospitality is based on the principle Atithi Devo Bhava , meaning "the guest

8464-696: Was first mentioned in the later era Shaivite Hindu text known as the Tiruvalluva Maalai , also of unclear date. However, the Tiruvalluva Maalai does not mention anything about Valluvar's birth, family, caste or background. No other authentic pre-colonial texts have been found to support any legends about the life of Valluvar. Starting around early 19th century, numerous inconsistent legends on Valluvar in various Indian languages and English were published. Various claims have been made regarding Valluvar's family background and occupation in

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