Due to compulsion and ideology Tirukural getting reduced to a book of ethics: TN Guv

Limiting Tirukural, authored by Tamil Saint-Poet Tiruvalluvar, to a book of ethics and morality reduces its messages to a list of dos and donts or advice, Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi said on Friday.Tirukural was more than that and its couplets were pithy and pregnant with deep meanings which cannot be understood without spirituality, Ravi said.Tirukural is a collection of 1,330 couplets that dwell upon different aspects of life and is accorded high respect in the Tamil society.Unfortunately, due to compulsion and ideology, Tirukural is getting reduced to a book of ethics and morality.

Limiting Tirukural, authored by Tamil Saint-Poet Tiruvalluvar, to a book of ethics and morality reduces its messages to a list of 'dos and dont's or advice, Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi said on Friday.

Tirukural was more than that and its couplets were pithy and pregnant with deep meanings which cannot be understood without spirituality, Ravi said.

Tirukural is a collection of 1,330 couplets that dwell upon different aspects of life and is accorded high respect in the Tamil society.

''Unfortunately, due to compulsion and ideology, Tirukural is getting reduced to a book of ethics and morality. Political correctness or the present ideology should not limit what the book has to offer... only then would Tirukural's glory continue,'' he said after inaugurating the World Tirukural Conference, organised at Sri Krishna Arts and Science College here, by Kural Malai Sangam, an organization working for the promotion of the Tirukural.

Stating that Tirukural not only talked about devotion, but had couplets on renunciation and the cycle of birth and death, Ravi said limiting it to a work on ethics and morality was a great injustice.

The book was also rooted in dharma, but ''due to perverse politics,' the spiritual and dharmic quotients of the book were ignored, he noted.

The governor distributed awards to former Anna University Vice Chancellor E Balagurusamy and retired Justice N Kirubakaan at the function.

The conference adopted three resolutions such as recommending to Tamil Nadu Government to extend support for the creation of Tirukural Malai with the inscription of the 1,330 couplets and make it as an International Cultural Research Centre, It also decided to recommend to the Government of India to recognise the Tirukural as a National Book of Literature and extend support for the creation of Tirukural Malai and recommend to the UNESCO to accord the recognition of World Book of Literature to it.