Tirumeni Rathna Kavirayar, known in full as Tirumeni Kaari Rathna Kavirayar, was a 16th-century
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, nati ...
scholar. He is known for his work ''Nunporul Maalai'', a commentary on
Parimelalhagar
Parimelalhagar ( ta, பரிமேலழகர்) (), sometimes spelled Parimelazhagar, born Vanduvarai Perumal, was a Tamil poet and scholar known for his commentary on the ''Thirukkural''. He was the last among the canon of ten medieval co ...
's commentary to the
Kural text
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 text ...
. His work is also the first in the series of commentaries appearing on Parimelalhagar's Kural commentary, known in the scholarly circle as ''uraikku urai'' (commentaries to the Commentary).
Works
Kavirayar's work on the Parimelalhagar commentary to the Kural text is considered one of the finest works on the subject. According to
M. Shanmugam Pillai, Kavirayar titled his work ''Nunporul Maalai'', which literally means “garland to the work of subtle meanings", because it elaborates on the finest interpretations found in Parimelalhagar's commentary on the Kural literature. According to E. Sundaramurthy, former vice-chancellor of the
Tamil University
The Tamil University is a public state university located in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India. It was established to provide higher research in the Tamil language.
Location
The university is situated in a campus of about , granted by the ...
, the ''Nunporul Maalai'' lists divergent interpretations, who explains that such differences, if based on genuine academic grounds, are part of research methodology.
Kavirayar has also authored similar work on the ''
Tolkappiyam'', which is titled ''Tolkappiya Nunporul Maalai''. However, this work is completely lost now.
Legacy
Kavirayar's work has inspired several scholars after him, each of whom wrote highly praised commentaries on Parimelalhagar's work worthy of critical analysis. These scholars include
Saravanaperumal Iyer,
Murugesa Mudaliyar,
Ramanuja Kavirayar
Ramanuja Kavirayar (1780, Ramanathapuram – 1853, Madras) was a Tamil savant and poet. Living in Madras, he dominated the world of Tamil letters and had several eminent Tamil scholars as his students.
Ramanuja Kavirayar pioneered the work of b ...
,
K. Vadivelu Chettiar
K. Vadivelu Chettiar (1863–1936) was a Tamil language, Tamil scholar of the early twentieth century. He is best known for his exegesis on the Parimelalhagar's commentary to the Tirukkural.
Biography
Chettiar was born in 1863 and was a merchant ...
,
Arasan Shanmuganar,
Kuppuswamy Mudaliyar, and
V. M. Gopalakrishnamachariyar.
See also
*
Commentaries in Tamil literary tradition
Commentaries to literary works remain one of the most important and telling aspects of the Tamil literary tradition. Commentaries to ancient Tamil works have been written since the medieval period and continue to be written in the modern era. Many ...
Citations
References
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{{Tamil language
Tirukkural
Tamil poets
Tirukkural commentators
Medieval Tamil poets
Tamil-language writers
Tamil scholars
Scholars of Hinduism
Scholars from Tamil Nadu
16th-century Indian scholars