Lack of Learning
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vilaṅkoṭu makka ḷaṉaiya rilaṅkunūl / kaṟṟārō ṭēṉai yavar
Compared with those who have learned illuminating works, all others resemble animals in relation to human beings, the verse says.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“Learning's irradiating grace who gain, / Others excel, as men the bestial train.”
“How much better are men than beasts? Even so much are the learned better than those that have not cared for instruction.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
விலங்கொடு மக்கள் அனையர்= விலங்கோடு நோக்க மக்களை எத்துணை நன்மையுடையார் அத்துணைத் தீமையுடையர்; இலங்கு நூல் கற்றாரோடு ஏனையவர்= விளங்கிய நூலைக் கற்றாரோடு நோக்கக் கல்லாதவர்.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar makes the analogy proportional: as humans are ranked above animals, those learned in illuminating texts are ranked above everyone else. This is forceful classical praise and dehumanising rhetoric, not literal anthropology or permission to call any person an animal.