Dating the Tirukkural

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Palm leaf manuscript of the Tirukkural

The dating of the

year of birth of Valluvar.[2]
Still the precise date as to when Valluvar completed writing the Kural text remains murky. This article speaks about various dates arrived at by various scholars over time.

Dating bases

The Tirukkural belongs to the

Late-Sangam period and has been listed as one of the chief text of the Sangam corpus. However, scholars find it difficult to ascertain the exact period of the text and its author and have employed, besides archaeological research, various historical references and linguistic methodologies to arrive at a date.[3]

The following are some of the

linguistic methodologies scholars use to date the Kural text:[4]

The Sangam texts were historically grouped as the Eighteen Greater Texts (which includes the Ten Idylls and the Eight Anthologies) and the Eighteen Lesser Texts in that order. Many scholars count only the Eighteen Greater Texts as proper Sangam texts and refer to the Eighteen Lesser Texts as the late-Sangam works. The Kural literature, which has been traditionally listed under the Eighteen Lesser Texts group, is the oldest of this group.[5] Evidently, there is no mention about Valluvar in any of the proper Sangam texts. Thus, scholars conclude that the Kural literature appeared only after the Ten Idylls and the Eight Anthologies texts.[6]

In the earliest Sangam literature, verses were composed mostly in the asiriyappa metre. Later texts were written in the vanjippa metre. Other metres such as kalippa, paripaadal, and venpa appeared much later. Verses in all the proper Sangam texts appear in the asiriyappa, kalippa, and paripaadal metres. The Kural couplets were composed in the venpa metre. Thus, Kural is said to have been composed after the Ten Idylls and the Eight Anthologies texts.[6]

The Kural literature has been dated variously from 300 BCE to 7th century CE. According to traditional accounts, it was the last work of the third

Sangam, appearing before other post-Sangam texts,[6] and was subjected to a divine test (which it passed). The scholars who uphold 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 the early 1st century CE.[7]

Content-based dating

While the earlier

alcohol consumption, polygamy, and prostitution, the Kural literature strongly condemns these as crimes.[6][9] In fact, it was the Kural text that condemned these as crimes for the first time in the history of the Tamil land.[10][11][12] Thus, scholars find this as another reason to place the Kural text after the proper Sangam era.[6]

Historical dating

Scholars who consider Kural to be a work of the 1st century BCE include J. M. Nallaswamy Pillai,

François Valentijn quotes Seneca the Younger's (c. 4 BCE–65 CE) mentioning of the Tirukkural in his works, hinting that Valluvar must have lived during or before Seneca the Younger's time: "Tiriwalluwir: One of their best prayer books, composed in clear and concise verses by Thiruwalluwer. Those who can read and understand him, can also understand the most difficult poets. This writer, according to the writings of Seneca, lived over 1500 years ago at Mailapore."[19]

In his 1969 book, C. Dandapani Desikar cites the work Studies in Tamil Literature, which lists several historical evidences about Valluvar's period:[4]

Linguistic dating

Opining that the Kural literature does not belong to the

Arthaśāstra.[22]

Abrahamic religious texts,[28][29] which suggests that the ethics of the Kural is rather a reflection of the Jaina moral code than of Christian ethics.[25] Nallaswamy Pillai declares Pope's claim as "an absurd literary anachronism" and says that the first two books of the Kural in particular are "a stumbling block which can browbeat the most sublime ideas of Christian morality."[26] John Lazarus and Maharajan observe that, in stark contrast to the Bible's concept of killing, which refers only to the taking away of human life, the Kural's concept of killing pertains to both humans and animals as it "deals exclusively with the literal taking away of life."[30][31][32]

Notwithstanding the incessant debate on the precise date, taking the latest of the estimated dates, the

Valluvar Year was officially added to the calendar.[17]

See also

Citations

  1. ^ Blackburn 2000, p. 454 with footnote 7.
  2. ^ Iraikkuruvanar, 2009, p. 72.
  3. ^ Thamizhannal, 2004, pp. 141–143.
  4. ^ a b c d Desikar, 1969, pp. 128–130.
  5. ^ Kovaimani and Nagarajan, 2013, p. 237.
  6. ^ a b c d e Sundaramurthi, 2000, pp. 403–408.
  7. ^ a b c d Zvelebil 1975, p. 124.
  8. ^ Sivagnanam, 1974, p. 8.
  9. ^ Mahadevan, 1985, pp. 193–195.
  10. ^ Sivagnanam, 1974, pp. 10, 11, 96.
  11. ^ Kovaimani and Nagarajan, 2013, pp. 176–181, 328–334.
  12. ^ Thamizhannal, 2004, p. 146.
  13. ^ Manavalan, 2009, p. 23.
  14. ^ a b Desikar, 1969, p. 130.
  15. ^ Rajamanickam, 1963, pp. 122–123.
  16. ^ a b c d Thamizhannal, 2004, p. 141.
  17. ^ a b Thiruvalluvar Ninaivu Malar, 1935, p. 117.
  18. ^ Bedi, 2012, pp. xiii–xix.
  19. ^ Arasaratnam, 1978, p. 61.
  20. ^ Zvelebil, 1973, p. 156.
  21. ^ Zvelebil, 1973, p. 169.
  22. ^ a b Zvelebil, 1973, p. 171.
  23. ^ a b Pope, 1886, p. iv (Introduction).
  24. ^ a b Manavalan, 2009, p. 39.
  25. ^ a b Zvelebil, 1973, pp. 156–171.
  26. ^ a b Manavalan, 2009, pp. 26–27.
  27. ^ Schweitzer, 2013, pp. 200–205 (cited in Shakti, Volume 5, 1968, p. 29).
  28. ^ Deuteronomy 14:3–14:29
  29. ^ Quran 5:1-5
  30. ^ Manavalan, 2009, p. 42.
  31. ^ Maharajan, 2017, p. 72.
  32. ^ Anandan, 2018, p. 319.
  33. ^ Arumugam, 2014, pp. 5, 15.
  34. ^ Hindustan Times, 16 January 2020.

References

Further reading

  • Ki. Vaa. Jagannathan (2014). திருக்குறள், ஆராய்ச்சிப் பதிப்பு [Tirukkural, Aaraicchi Pathippu] (3rd ed.). Coimbatore: Ramakrishna Mission Vidhyalayam.
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