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306
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
idea of the contents of the book; for the author, led by the desire of conforming to customary divisions, has brought together under these heads a series of ethical precepts on almost everything relating to human conduct, and forced them into an apparent conformity with his plan. I could almost imagine that having become enamoured of the Kurra! distich, he composed couplets on all the subjects that from time to time presented themselves to his mind, and at last threw them into this conventional form, adding a number of verses as 'padding'; for in almost every chapter there are inferior and superfluous couplets.
As an illustration of the three main divisions of the Kurral, I may add that the nannul ("good treatise": a standard Tamil grammar) has the rule:
arram porul inbam vid 'aḍaidal nul payané: "The benefit to be derived from the study of a treatise must be the obtaining of virtue, wealth, pleasure and heaven."
The poetess Avvai (= "the old woman"), whose real name is not known, and who is traditionally spoken of as a sister of Tiruvalluvar, was once asked for a definition of these four prime objects of human pursuit. Her reply was thrown into four very neat lines, of which the following is a rendering:
"Giving is 'virtue'; gathering together without evil is wealth'; the mutual affection of two consenting minds is 'pleasure;' the forsaking of these three in meditation upon God is the supreme bliss of 'heaven.'"
In the 26th ślôka of the Hitopadesa the same enumeration is given,
Dharmmartha kama mokshanám.
Our author has treated only of three of these: did he leave his work incomplete ? Or, did he resolve to write only of the human side of his subject, leaving Vidu or Moksha as a subject too speculative for his genius ?
Perhaps he was not satisfied with the glimpses he had obtained of man's future, and waited for light.
In chapters 35-37 there is something which seems like an approach to a consideration of the subject.
[NOVEMBER, 1879.
The invocation must begin the book. Here the invocation has expanded into a chapter; being, in fact, not a mere conventional invocation, but a main topic of the work.
A summary of this chapter will give an idea of the method of the book :I. 1. God is first in the world.
II. 2. The end of learning is the worship of the only Wise.
[This also satisfies the condition that an author should state in the beginning the benefit to be gained by its study.]
III. The benefits of true devotion:
3. The devout worshipper shall enjoy prolonged felicity, in some higher sphere;
4. He shall be delivered from all evil;
PART I. CHAPTER I.
It is a fundamental rule of Tamil composition that the "praise of God" should stand first.
5. He shall escape from the influence of human action, good and bad;
6. He shall enjoy prolonged felicity in this world.
IV. The evil results of ungodliness:
7. The undevout man has no relief from heart-sorrow;
8. He has no aid in the midst of the sea of evil;
9. His whole existence is null and void. V. The devout and indevout contrasted : 10. These shall escape from endless transmigrations: those shall not.
11. Agara' mudala erutt 'ellám; ádi
pagavan mudatté ulagu.
Lit. trans. :
All letters have a as their first; the world has as first the Eternal Adorable One.'
For the idea compare the Bhagavadgitá x. 33: aksharanám a-karo 'smi.
'Inter elementa sum littera A.'
Tiruvalluvar needed not, therefore, to go beyond the Bhagavadgitá for this idea; nor is it quite in the style of a philosopher of the Sankhya school.
The very name pagavan (= bhagaván) is suggestive. Adi (S.) is used as an adj.= the eternal and adorable one. Bhagaván occurs in Manu I. 6. with Swayambhu, self-existent,' as its attribute.
Here ádi seems to imply the same.
It is not necessary to suppose any sectarian idea in the poet's use of the term.
Beschi's numen primordiale is Mana's swayambhu-bhagaván: with the difference made by the masculine termination.
