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SEPTEMBER, 1878.]
Avvai as his sister, while several other poets, a few of whose verses are preserved, were his brothers. There is no foundation for these stories. He certainly was a Pariah, lived at St. Thomé, or Mayila pûr, and appears to have had an intimate friend, probably a patron, called Elêla-Singan, a sailor.
He is said to have composed his Kurra! at the request of his neighbours, that the Tamil people might have a Védam of their own. It was doubtless intended to become the authority on all ethical subjects for the Tamil country. The author must have already possessed a great reputation, or this request would not have been made; yet there are no traces of any other writings of his.
The Kurra! when finished is said to have been taken by its author to M ad urâ, where there was a college of learned Tamil scholars. Lists are given of the forty-eight members of this academy, but there are no genuine remains of their writings. The result of the appearance of Tiruvalluvar is variously stated. The general idea is that the high-caste assembly would not permit him to take his seat on the bench with the learned pandits, on account of his want of caste, but that, meekly acquiescing in his own exclusion, he simply requested permission to lay his book on the end of the seat. On this being granted, the book was placed where the poet should have been seated, and the whole bench at once disappeared, leaving the learned professors afloat in the Lotus-tank. This story is inconsistent with the idea, which is equally prevalent, that the president was Kapilar, himself a Pariah, and a brother of Tiruval ļu var.
NOTES ON THE KURRAL.
The truth seems to be that the southern school of Tamil literature was supreme till the advent of the St. Thomé poet, whose fame eclipsed that of the southern sages.
There are no data whatever which may enable us to fix the period at which our poet flourished. I think between A.D. 1000 and 1200 is its probable date. The style is not archaic far less so than that of the Sivaga Chintamani. Remembering that its author was not fettered by caste prejudices, that his greatest friend was a sea-captain, that he lived at St. Thomé, that he was evidently an eclectic,' that Christian influences were at work in the neighbourhood, and that many passages are strikingly Christian in
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their spirit, I cannot feel any hesitation in saying that the Christian Scriptures were among the sources from which the poet derived his inspiration. I think that even Muhammadan influences are not to be excluded.
The edition published by the late Dr. Graul, in Leipzig and in London, in 1856, is likely to be in the hands of all who care to read this paper. Dr. Graul has incorporated Beschi's Latin translation.
Mr. F. W. Ellis, an Oriental scholar of extraordinary ability, a member of the Madras Civil Service, printed a large portion of the Kurral with copious notes and illustrations. The sheets of this unfinished work can still be had. The Rev. W. H. Drew, a missionary of the London Society in Madras, published an edition with the Tamil commentary of Parimêla ragar. This is the best edition.
The purely native editions issued under the editorship of the late learned pandit Sarvanapa rumalaiyar of Madras are very correct and valuable.
Twelve native commentators have illustrated by verbal commentaries the whole text; but the student will do well to disregard the meanings read into the verses by persons, native or European, who are anxious to prove that the Tamil sage taught their own favourite dogmas.
Tiruvalluvar is generally very simple, and his commentators very profound.
In regard to the philosophico-theological system taught in the Kurra! various opinions have naturally been held. Of course every Hindû sect claims the great poet, and strives to interpret his verses so as to favour its own dogmas. The Jainas especially claim him, and he has used several of their terms. He seems to me to have been cognizant of the latest developments of that system.
Dr. Graul's account of the spirit of the work is fair and accurate. He says: "The Kural breathes throughout the atmosphere of Buddhism, or rather Jainaism, although the Brahmans have thought fit to appropriate it to themselves, by making Tiruvalluvar an incarnation of Śiva.
"The monotheism taught in it is that of the later Buddhists or Jainas, who acknowledged an Adibuddha or Adiśvara, called sometimes even Âdidê van, 'primordial god.' Nothing is said about the dignity of Brahmans, who are
