Not Offending the Great and Powerful
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periyāraip pēṇā toḻukiṟ periyārāṟ / pērā viṭumpai tarum.
If a ruler behaves without due regard for people great in capability, that conduct will bring through them suffering that does not depart.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“If men will lead their lives reckless of great men's will, / Such life, through great men's powers, will bring perpetual ill.”
“If a man slighteth the Great Ones, their power will bring down on him miseries without end.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
பெரியாரைப் பேணாது ஒழுகின்= ஆற்றல்களாற் பெரியர் ஆயினாரை வேந்தர் நன்கு மதியாது அவமதித்து ஒழுகுவாராயின்; பெரியாரால் பேரா இடும்பைதரும்= அவ்வொழுக்கம் அப்பெரியாரால் அவர்க்கு எஞ்ஞான்றும் நீங்காத துன்பங்களைக் கொடுக்கும்.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar frames the subject as a king who fails to show proper regard for people made great by their capacities and instead treats them with contempt. That conduct, he says, brings through those people sufferings that never leave. This does not make revenge just or place a powerful person beyond criticism; it preserves the severe causal warning of the classical political setting.