Kaniyan Poongunranar, also Poongundranar or Pungundranar (), was an influential

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

philosopher from the

Sangam age The Sangam period or age (, ), particularly referring to the third Sangam period, is the period of the history of ancient Tamil Nadu, Kerala and parts of Sri Lanka (then known as Tamilakam) spanning from c. 6th century BCE to c. 3rd century CE. ...

from around 6th century BCE. His name Kaniyan implies that he was an Kaala Kanithar (

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...

) (''kaala kanitham'' in Tamil literally means mathematics of date, time and place). Kaniyan was born and brought up in Mahibalanpatti, a village panchayat in Tamil Nadu's Sivaganga district. He composed two poems in

Puṟanāṉūṟu The ''Purananuru'' (, literally "four hundred

oems An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is generally perceived as a company that produces non-aftermarket parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. It is a common industry term recognized and used by many professional or ...

in the genre puram"), sometimes called ''Puram'' or ''Purappattu'', is a classical Tamil literature, Tamil poetic work and traditionally the last of the Eight Anthologies (''Ettuthokai'') i ...

and Natrinai.

Purananuru (Verse 192)

Themes

Cosmopolitanism

Poongundranar rejected division of mankind into various categories and emphasised the universality of all humans. The Tamil bards and intellectuals of the time of Poongundranar and those preceding his age considered that all humans, whatever their rank or station in life, were alike.

Natural law

Poongundranar states that the wooden log is carried by the water in its direction and similarly postulates that everything in life will also follow

karma Karma (; sa, कर्म}, ; pi, kamma, italic=yes) in Sanskrit means an action, work, or deed, and its effect or consequences. In Indian religions, the term more specifically refers to a principle of cause and effect, often descriptivel ...

. This he calls 'Way of Order'().

Principles of the Way of Order

Throughout his poem, Poongundranar lays down the principles of his version of

natural law Natural law ( la, ius naturale, ''lex naturalis'') is a system of law based on a close observation of human nature, and based on values intrinsic to human nature that can be deduced and applied independently of positive law (the express enacte ...

. The first part of the poem deals with the basic principles of the 'Way of Order'() which is his term for

. *Every human of every town is of the same value because they are கேளிர் (related). Hence, all people should be bound by one, same moral and legal code. *நன்று (

good In most contexts, the concept of good denotes the conduct that should be preferred when posed with a choice between possible actions. Good is generally considered to be the opposite of evil and is of interest in the study of ethics, morality, ph ...

) and தீது (

evil Evil, in a general sense, is defined as the opposite or absence of good. It can be an extremely broad concept, although in everyday usage it is often more narrowly used to talk about profound wickedness and against common good. It is general ...

) do not come from others. Hence, humans are liable for both the pleasure and suffering they feel. *Death is a natural part of the cycle of life, it is not new. Hence, this life must be made use of to its full potential.

Allegory of the raft

Poongundranar further goes onto explain these principles with an example of a raft. *He compares birth to lightning, suggesting it can happen spontaneously anywhere. *He gives an example of a raft which is allegorical to human life going downstream a steep hill, having a perilous journey through boulders and faces its climax just as in திறவோர் காட்சியில் (lit. Wisemen's vision means fate) which is death. *He concludes that since everyone's life is like the raft's journey, it is irrational to magnify the பெரியோ ��்(accomplished people) and even worse to diminish சிறியோ ��்less accomplished people), because everyone goes through similar tribulations whatever their social estate might be.

Influence

Poongundranar was extremely influential in the revivalist Self-respect movement. The sentence "Yaadhum Oore Yaavarum Kelir" has been adopted as the motto of the World Thamizh Confederation to represent

Tamil people The Tamil people, also known as Tamilar ( ta, தமிழர், Tamiḻar, translit-std=ISO, in the singular or ta, தமிழர்கள், Tamiḻarkaḷ, translit-std=ISO, label=none, in the plural), or simply Tamils (), are a Dravi ...

. The quote "Yaadhum Oore Yaavarum Kelir" is at present depicted in the

United Nations Organisation The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizin ...

G. G. Ponnambalam Ganapathipillai Gangaser Ponnambalam ( ta, கணபதி காங்கேசர் பொன்னம்பலம்; 8 November 1901 – 9 February 1977) was a Ceylon Tamil lawyer, politician and cabinet minister. He was the founder and l ...

concluded his 1966 address to the 21st session of the

United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...

by invoking this quote. A. P. J Abdul Kalam was the first one to quote this famous quote in European Unio
Historical Speech by Abdul Kalam in European Union
and the another one is

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...

who quoted it i
74th Session of the UN General Assembly
Kaniyan Poongundranar's ''Yathum oore'' poem has been declared as the theme song of the 10th

World Tamil Conference The World Tamil Conference ( ta, உலகத் தமிழ் மாநாடு) is a series of occasional conferences to discuss the social growth of the Tamil language. Each conference is attended by thousands of Tamil enthusiasts around t ...

scheduled in Chicago. American composer

Rajan Somasundaram Rajan Somasundaram, best known as Composer Rajan, is a composer, drummer, violinist and music producer based in Raleigh. He is known for making the first ever music album on Tamil Sangam period poetry in association with Durham Symphony and promi ...

has given the first music form for the 2000-year-old poetry. It has been sung by Academy nominated singer

Bombay Jayashri "Bombay" Jayashri Ramnath is an Indian Carnatic vocalist, singer, and musician. She has sung in multiple languages including Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi movies. Born into a family of musicians, Jayashri represents the fourth ge ...

and

Karthik (singer) Karthik (born 7 November 1980) is an Indian playback singer and composer. Karthik started his professional singing career as a backing vocalist and has since been working as a playback singer. He has sung more than 8000 songs in 15 Indian l ...

among other international artists. The first musical form of Yaadhum Oore poem by composer

was chosen as the theme song of 10th

from the album Sandham: Symphony Meets Classical Tamil and was featured in Amazon's Top#10 International Music albums.

Natrinai (Verse 226)

References

{{authority control Tamil philosophy Ancient Indian philosophers Tamil poets People from Sivaganga district Scholars from Tamil Nadu Sangam poets