The Kural is one of the most important forms of classical
Tamil language
Tamil (; ' , ) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. Tamil is an official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the sovereign nations of Sri Lanka and Singapore, and the Indian territory of Pudu ...
poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...
. It is a very short
poetic form
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in a ...
being an independent couplet complete in 2 lines, the first line consisting of 4 words and the second line consisting of 3. As one of the five types of
Venpa
Venpa or Venba ('' வெண்பா'' in Tamil) is a form of classical Tamil poetry. Classical Tamil poetry has been classified based upon the rules of metric prosody. Such rules form a context-free grammar. Every venba consists of between two ...
stanza, it must also conform to the
grammar
In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...
for Venpa, the most difficult and the most highly esteemed of stanzaic structures in classical
Tamil literature
Tamil literature has a rich and long literary tradition spanning more than two thousand years. The oldest extant works show signs of maturity indicating an even longer period of evolution. Contributors to the Tamil literature are mainly from T ...
. The ''
Tirukkuṛaḷ
The ''Tirukkuṟaḷ'' ( ta, திருக்குறள், lit=sacred verses), or shortly the ''Kural'' ( ta, குறள்), is a classic Tamil language text consisting of 1,330 short couplets, or kurals, of seven words each. The tex ...
'' by
Tiruvalluvar
Thiruvalluvar (Tamil: திருவள்ளுவர்), commonly known as Valluvar, was a celebrated Tamil poet and philosopher. He is best known as the author of the ''Tirukkuṟaḷ'', a collection of couplets on ethics, political and ...
, one of the greatest philosophical works in Tamil, is a typical example.
Structure
Prosodic background
The Tamil conception of metrical structure includes elements that appear in no other major prosodic system. This discussion is presented in terms of syllables, feet, and lines (although syllables are not explicitly present in Tamil prosodic theory).
Similarly to classical
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
,
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
, and
Sanskrit prosody
Sanskrit prosody or Chandas refers to one of the six Vedangas, or limbs of Vedic studies.James Lochtefeld (2002), "Chandas" in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Vol. 1: A-M, Rosen Publishing, , page 140 It is the study of poetic metr ...
, a syllable is long if its vowel is (1) long (including diphthongs) or (2) followed by two or more consonants. Generally other syllables are short, though some syllables are considered "overshort" and ignored in the metrical scheme, while "overlong" syllables are variously dealt with.
Metrical structure
is a closely related family of very strict Tamil verse forms. They differ chiefly in the number of standard lines that occur before the final short line. In (or simply "kural") a single 4-foot ("standard") line is followed by a final 3-foot ("short") line, resulting in a 7-foot couplet. Syntactically, each foot normally consists of only a single word, but may also consist of two words if they are very closely linked (for example, in
apposition
Apposition is a grammatical construction in which two elements, normally noun phrases, are placed side by side so one element identifies the other in a different way. The two elements are said to be ''in apposition'', and one of the elements is ...
). Metrically, the first six feet are all identical, conforming to this structure:
(u)x (u)x (x)
:u = 1 short syllable
:x = 1 short or 1 long syllable (''anceps'' in Western parlance)
:( ) = the enclosed syllable is optional
This very flexible structure would generate 48 possible syllabic patterns, but two additional constraints apply:
# The initial (u)x may not be realized by u alone.
# The final anceps is prohibited if the second (u)x is realized by u alone.
...leaving 30 possible syllabic patterns per foot, each realized with two to five syllables:
– u
– – (x)
– uu (x)
– u– (x)
uu u
uu – (x)
uu uu (x)
uu u– (x)
u– u
u– – (x)
u– uu (x)
u– u– (x)
:– = long syllable
:(x) represents 3 possibilities: absent, u (short), or – (long)
The kural's final foot is essentially a much-shortened version. The structure of the entire couplet is thus:
(u)x (u)x (x) , (u)x (u)x (x) , (u)x (u)x (x) , (u)x (u)x (x)
(u)x (u)x (x) , (u)x (u)x (x) , (u)x
:, = division between feet (and words)
In actual composition, syllabic patterns are limited further, because every realized foot places constraints upon the syllabic pattern of the ''following'' foot, thus:
* When the final optional anceps of a foot is PRESENT, the next foot must not begin with a short syllable.
* When the final optional anceps of a foot is ABSENT AND …
** The middle optional short syllable is PRESENT, the next foot must not begin with a short syllable.
** The middle optional short syllable is ABSENT, the next foot must begin with a short syllable.
Ornamentation
One ornamental feature of Tamil versification is , often translated "rhyme", although it is distinct from typical Western rhyme. This occurs often in kural, but is not obligatory. There is variance in Tamil practice, but in a kural couplet, is usually more or less equivalent to the ''exact repetition of the initial line's second syllable as the final line's second syllable''. An example (not in a kural, but in a four-line ) is:
Sometimes additional syllables, beyond the second, are also repeated.
Notes
References
*
*
*
Further reading
*Tiruvaḷḷuvar, & Sundaram, P. S. (1991). ''The Kural''. New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books.
External links
Thirukkural Oli Pathipu: Thirukkural Audio bookOnline Thirukkural Lessons*
* http://philosophyofkural.blogspot.in {{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180428220203/http://philosophyofkural.blogspot.in/ , date=28 April 2018
Tamil poetics
Tirukkural
Poetic forms