A compendium of Tirukkuṟaḷ: translations in English Vol. 2. Poruṭpāl (18 different English translations in one)

In the history of world literature, Tirukkuṟaḷ, the magnum opus in Tamil, is one work of art that refuses to be tied down to any particular race, religion, land or culture. In an expansive body of 1330 verses that it contains, there is not even a single reference, direct or indirect, to the Tamil language or the Tamil people or the Tamil country that for sure nurtured its author’s genius and that provided the milieu for such a work to be composed. It soars above diversities of nation, language, religion, race and culture and speaks for the entirety of humankind. Tirukkuṟaḷ is indeed the miracle of a literary composition where every god, every human trait, every virtue, every emotion, every deed, every relationship is universalized root and branch. Tirukkuṟaḷ by intent steers clear of identification with any particular doctrine, ideology or philosophy.

In essence, Tirukkuṟaḷ is much more than a humanistic document in a metrical garb. It is a masterpiece of world literature in which the poet, through his vast learning, the wisdom of the world and catholicity of temper, has identified things that are abiding and constant in the affairs of humanity and transmuted them into absorbing poetry as not many have accomplished in the history of world literature.