Tulsi Prajna 1991 10

SR No.: 524568
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Parmeshwar Solanki
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati
Publication Year: 1991
Total Pages: 118
Language: Hindi
Classification: Magazine, India_Tulsi Prajna, & India
File Size: 6 MB

Page 97

Vol. No. XVII, No. 3
elephant and beating drums. Whatever could be the indicative meaning of the term valluvar, Tiruvalluvar was a great personage of saintly and catholic dignity, with deep insight into human psychology and behaviour, sincerely nourishing humanitarian values, ever breathing goodness and goodwill and zealously catering them to the people at large.
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Thus very little is exactly known about Tiruvalluvar and his life; and besides there prevails some uncertainty about his date. As a result, there has also been, for the last several decades, a controversy among scholars over his religion, faith or sectarian denomination, on which, now, I propose to present some observations. Several scholars have so far put forth their views regarding Tiruvalluvar's religious faith, advancing reasons as per their
convictions: Some say he was a Jain; a few others think he was a Buddhist; some others hold he was a Brahmin (Saivite/Vaiṣṇavite); some keep him above any or all such sectration denominations; and some just mark him as a great ecletic ethico-social reformer addressing mankind at large. As it is neither possible nor practical here to consider in detail the views of all scholars, I would cite one or two in each case representatively: Prof. A. Chakravarti Naynar tried to prove that Tiruvalluvar was a Jain Sage Elācārya, a disciple of Acarya Kundakunda; but Prof. S. Vaiyapuri pillai simply said that he was of Jain faith, The Buddhist work Maṇimekhalai and also some modern scholars state that Tiruvalluvar had the real Buddhistic vision. This could be, perhaps, particularly keeping in view his verses such as on Giving up Desire' (Tirukkural, part-1, Ch.37). Prof. S. Krishna Svami Aiyangar quoting some verses in Kural and connecting them with the Manusmṛti, the Mahābhārata, the Danacandrikā etc., concludes that the author of the Kural was Brahmanical in religion. C. Rajagopalachari, straightway rejecting Tiruvalluvar being claimed as Jain, finds him above all denominations. Prof Meenaxisundarm, after much discussion on this point, concludes that the auther of the kural refuses to be labelled. Prof. T. R. Sesh Aiyanger pointing out the poet-philosopher's particular qualities remarks: Valluvar resemble, that other great ecletic weaver, the medieval reformer, kabir, who spoke neither to any particular sect nor any one form of religion even, but to the whole of mankind.
But I for one, think that whatever could be the various regional and time-honoured meanings of the term Valluvar, Tiruvalluvar must have been from the very beginning an intelligent child and sprouting poetic genius; he must have belonged to same religious