Gambling
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paḻakiya celvamum paṇpuṅ keṭukkum / kaḻakattuk kālai pukiṉ.
If the time already set aside for virtue, for livelihood and for enjoyment goes into the gaming ground, that spending destroys both the wealth a family has long been used to and the character built in the same slow way.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“Ancestral wealth and noble fame to ruin haste, / If men in gambler's halls their precious moments waste.”
“If thou throw away thy time at the gambling-house, thy inheritance will be consumed and thy fair name will be wiped out.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
காலை கழகத்துப் புகின்= அறம் பொருள் இன்பங்களுக்கடைத்த காலம் அரசனுக்குச் சூதாடும் களத்தின்கண் கழியுமாயின்; பழகியசெல்வமும் பண்பும் கெடுக்கும்= அக்கழிவு தொன்றுதொட்டு வந்த அவன் செல்வத்தினையும், நற்குணங்களையும் போக்கும்.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
Parimelazhagar settles two things. First, which time is meant: the portion already allotted to virtue, to livelihood and to enjoyment. It is not idle time but time that already belongs elsewhere. Second, what does the destroying: that expenditure of time, in his phrase, and not the man and not any wager. What it destroys is wealth that has come down from long ago and the good qualities the ruler had, both of which are things that were made slowly.