The same word, twice over

படுபயன் வெஃகிப் பழிப்படுவ செய்யார்
நடுவன்மை நாணு பவர்.

நாண் means shame, modesty, the moral blush that recoils from wrong — a quality the Kural treats as a whole virtue elsewhere. Here the unfair act is refused by those who நாணுபவர், 'feel shame.' English 'shame' can sound merely social, but நாண் is the inner conscience itself — the self-respecting recoil that makes a person unable to do the base thing, profit or no profit.

பேணாது பெண்விழைவா னாக்கம் பெரியதோர்
நாணாக நாணுத் தரும்.

Nāṇ names shame, modest restraint, or the inward response to conduct judged dishonourable. Here the commentary makes wealth produce shame under an ancient male honour code. A modern reader should direct scrutiny toward the freely chosen breach, not use shame against women, respectful partners, or anyone whose agency was constrained by abuse.

பெண்ணேவல் செய்தொழுகு மாண்மையி னாணுடைப்
பெண்ணே பெருமை உடைத்து.

Nāṇ means modest moral self-respect: owning a fair choice without insulting or dominating anyone.

நாணென்னு நல்லாள் புறங்கொடுக்குங் கள்ளென்னும்
பேணாப் பெருங்குற்றத் தார்க்கு.

நாண் is not humiliation and not embarrassment. It is the inward keeper that makes certain acts unthinkable before thought reaches them, and it sits nearer to self-respect than to shyness. Read what the line does with her: she is a நல் ஆள், a good person, and she puṟam koṭukkum — gives her back. That is the Tamil for a soldier abandoning the field. She does not stand at a distance disapproving. She leaves the position.

நாணா லுயிரைத் துறப்ப ருயிர்ப்பொருட்டா
னாண்டுறவார் நாணாள் பவர்.

நாண் (nāṇ) — the pulling-back a person feels just before doing something low. It is not shyness in front of other people, and it is not feeling bad about who you are. It points at the act: your hand stops. Parimelazhagar describes it as shrinking from a base deed, which is why it can cost you a thing without ever costing you your worth.

பிணையேர் மடநோக்கு நாணு முடையாட்
கணியெவனோ வேதில தந்து.

Modesty or reserve, the inward holding back that shows without being displayed. The couplet counts it as an ornament, which means shyness is not treated here as a weakness to be fixed.

நோனா வுடம்பு முயிரு மடலேறு
நாணினை நீக்கி நிறுத்து.

Reserve — the modesty that keeps a feeling unspoken. In this couplet it is not a virtue being praised but a barrier being removed: the body and the life push naan aside because they can no longer bear the pain behind it.

நாணொடு நல்லாண்மை பண்டுடையே னின்றுடையேன்
காமுற்றா ரேறு மடல்.

நாண் is the inner check that keeps a person from showing or saying too much. English "shame" is too harsh for it and "shyness" is too small; it is closer to reserve, or the self-protective sense of what one does not display in public. In the couplet நாண் is listed first among the things the speaker used to own, which tells us he valued it as property, not as a weakness.

காமக் கடும்புன லுய்க்குமே நாணொடு
நல்லாண்மை யென்னும் புணை.

Shyness or reserve — the pulling-back that stops you saying or showing what you feel. Here it is not called a fault; it is called a support that a strong feeling can wash away.

தம்மிற்றம் மக்க ளறிவுடைமை மாநிலத்து
மன்னுயிர்க் கெல்லா மினிது

அறிவு means wisdom, intelligence, knowing — but in Tamil thought it runs deeper than 'cleverness': it is the cultivated understanding that joins natural intelligence to learning and good judgement. Parimelazhagar reads it here as exactly that union. The verse says a child's அறிவு surpassing one's own is a delight to all the world — prizing not raw smarts but the matured discernment that makes a whole, wise person, and calling its growth a shared joy.

அஃகி அகன்ற அறிவென்னாம் யார்மாட்டும்
வெஃகி வெறிய செயின்.

அறிவு means knowledge, wisdom, the faculty of understanding. The verse asks what use is 'அஃகி அகன்ற அறிவு,' a mind subtle and wide, if it yields to greed. English 'knowledge' is exact, but in the Kural அறிவு is never merely information — it is understanding that should issue in right action, so learning that doesn't change conduct fails to be அறிவு at all.

பிறப்பென்னும் பேதைமை நீங்கச் சிறப்பென்னும்
செம்பொருள் காண்ப தறிவு

Aṟivu means knowledge or wisdom; here it is the realization that sees the pure reality.

பேதைப் படுக்கு மிழவூ ழறிவகற்று
மாகலூ ழுற்றக் கடை

அறிவு means understanding and discernment, the capacity to see distinctions and choose with clarity.

அஞ்சாமை யீகையறி வூக்க மிந்நான்கு
மெஞ்சாமை வேந்தற் கியல்பு

அறிவு — Aṟivu means knowledge or discerning wisdom; here it is one of four qualities that must remain in a ruler.

பொறியின்மை யார்க்கும் பழியன் றறிவறிந்
தாள்வினை யின்மை பழி.

அறிவு here includes knowing the work that ought to be done. Responsibility needs this understanding together with real ability and support; a child cannot be blamed for what was never made understandable or possible.

ஆள்வினையு மான்ற வறிவு மெனவிரண்டி
னீள்வினையா னீளுங் குடி.

அறிவு (aṟivu) — knowing: what a person has come to understand, not how quick they happen to be. It stands here as the second of two named things, level with the effort beside it and not above it. The word in front of it, ஆன்ற, means grown full, so this line asks for understanding that has had time to fill out — which is why Parimelazhagar writes நிறைந்த அறிவு. A one-word gloss such as 'knowledge' loses that measure, and with it the reason a person can go and get this.

அன்றறிவாம் என்னாது அறஞ்செய்க மற்றது
பொன்றுங்கால் பொன்றாத் துணை

துணை means 'companion, support, help.' The verse calls virtue 'பொன்றாத் துணை' — the help that does not perish. English 'help' is transactional, a thing used and set down; துணை is relational, the steady companion who stays at your side. The power of the image is that every other துணை — wealth, body, kin — falls away at death, and only this one walks on. Parimelazhagar stresses it joins the soul and travels even beyond the body.

இல்வாழ்வான் என்பான் இயல்புடைய மூவர்க்கும்
நல்லாற்றின் நின்ற துணை

துணை means 'support, companion, mainstay.' The verse calls the householder the 'நல்லாற்றின் நின்ற துணை' — the support standing firm on the good path. English 'support' can sound merely functional, like propping something up; துணை is warmer and more relational, the steady companion others lean on. Parimelazhagar explains it concretely: the householder supplies food, medicine, shelter so the other orders can keep to their disciplines without breaking — so துணை here is active, sustaining help, not passive backing.

துறந்தார்க்கும் துவ்வாதவர்க்கும் இறந்தார்க்கும்
இல்வாழ்வான் என்பான் துணை

துணை means 'helper' — someone who is there for you. The verse says the home is a துணை for people who have no one else: the poor, the lonely, those with no family. It teaches that being a துணை to people who can't help you back is the kindest kind of help.

மனைத்தக்க மாண்புடையள் ஆகித் தற்கொண்டான்
வளத்தக்காள் வாழ்க்கைத் துணை

துணை means companion, support, the one who stands beside you and holds up the shared life. The verse ends on 'வாழ்க்கைத் துணை' — the life-companion. English 'help-meet' or 'spouse' names a role; துணை names a relationship of mutual bearing — the one whose presence steadies and sustains. Valluvar's point is that this support is earned by character and good judgement, not conferred by status, and that it is what truly carries a home.

பரிந்தோம்பிக் காக்க ஒழுக்கம் தெரிந்தோம்பித்
தேரினும் அஃதே துணை.

துணை (tuṇai) is companion, support, or ally. Here conduct is what remains reliably beside a person across both lives.

நல்லாற்றா னாடி யருளாள்க பல்லாற்றான்
றேரினு மஃதே துணை

துணை means support, companion, or reliable aid. The Kural says compassion alone remains this support after inquiry; for a child, it helps a careful choice stand.

நல்லினத்தி னூங்குத் துணையில்லை தீயினத்தி
னல்லற் படுப்பதூஉ மில்

துணை (tuṇai) means ‘support, ally, or reliable help.’ Here it is the unsurpassed practical support offered by sound company.

களவினா லாகிய வாக்க மளவிறந்
தாவது போலக் கெடும்

ஆக்கம் can mean increase, prosperity, wealth, or what has been produced. Parimelazhagar specifies it here as பொருள், wealth brought into being by theft. The verse exploits the word's growth sense: the gain seems to be ‘becoming’ larger, yet the same structure is unstable. Translating it as ‘gain’ keeps the causal link without suggesting that prosperity itself is suspect.

நன்றாகு மாக்கம் பெரிதெனினுஞ் சான்றோர்க்குக்
கொன்றாகு மாக்கங் கடை

ஆக்கம் means gain, prosperity, or acquired wealth. Its moral worth depends on its means and not merely its size.

மனநல மன்னுயிர்க் காக்க மினநல
மெல்லாப் புகழுந் தரும்

ஆக்கம் (ākkam) means flourishing, gain, or prosperity. A good mind supports this inward and practical growth, while sound companions help it become publicly trustworthy conduct.

இகலிற் கெதிர்சாய்த லாக்க மதனை
மிகலூக்கி னூக்குமாங் கேடு.

Ākkam means gain, growth, or flourishing that becomes possible.

இகல்காணா னாக்கம் வருங்கா லதனை
மிகல்காணுங் கேடு தரற்கு.

Ākkam means gain, flourishing, or the arrival of a better condition.

பேணாது பெண்விழைவா னாக்கம் பெரியதோர்
நாணாக நாணுத் தரும்.

Ākkam can mean prosperity, wealth, or an attained increase. Parimelazhagar treats it here as the wealth already gained by the man in the historical claim. The reversal matters: the possession does not prove honour; under the old judgement, the way its holder surrendered self-rule makes the wealth itself shameful.

தீவினையார் அஞ்சார் விழுமியார் அஞ்சுவர்
தீவினை என்னும் செருக்கு.

For an adult reader, செருக்கு here is not merely pride. Parimelazhagar glosses it as மயக்கம்—the intoxicating moral confusion called evil action, in which a person loses the fear that should restrain harm. The word names the chapter's first danger inside the doer: not punishment arriving from outside, but judgment becoming numb.

யானென தென்னுஞ் செருக்கறுப்பான் வானோர்க்
குயர்ந்த வுலகம் புகும்

செருக்கு: யான் and எனது are the twin claims ‘I’ and ‘mine.’ செருக்கு is the swelling pride built from those claims.

உள்ள மிலாதவ ரெய்தா ருலகத்து
வள்ளிய ரென்னுஞ் செருக்கு.

செருக்கு here is proud self-estimation: the inward sense, ‘we are liberal givers.’ Parimelazhagar denies that rulers missing energetic resolve can reach this standing, because their generous identity has not been carried into action.

செய்க பொருளைச் செறுநர் செருக்கறுக்கு
மெஃகதனிற் கூரிய தில்.

செருக்கு is overbearing pride that turns advantage into pressure. The target is that coercive leverage, not the opponent's basic dignity.

வெண்மை யெனப்படுவ தியாதெனி னொண்மை
யுடையம்யா மென்னுஞ் செருக்கு.

Cerukku here is unsupported self-conceit: treating one’s first impression as settled knowledge before checking relevant evidence.

இகலானா மின்னாத வெல்லா நகலானா
நன்னய மென்னுஞ் செருக்கு.

Cerukku here means a great abundance or proud wealth, not arrogance.

எழுபிறப்புந் தீயவை தீண்டா பழிபிறங்காப்
பண்புடை மக்கட் பெறின்

பண்பு means good character, quality, the settled nature of a person — the grain that runs through who they are. English 'manners' is too shallow and 'virtue' too stiff; பண்பு is the whole texture of a good character, how someone is made on the inside. The verse praises பண்புடை மக்கள், children of sound பண்பு whom no one can fault — and says it is this character, not wealth or brilliance, that becomes a home's lasting safeguard.

நயன்சாரா நன்மையின் நீக்கும் பயன்சாரா
பண்பில் சொல் பல்லார் அகத்து.

பண்பு means good quality, character, the fine attributes of speech (sweetness, truth, fitness). The verse condemns பண்பு இல் சொல் — words without பண்பு. English 'graceless / worthless words' is close, but பண்பு is the whole register of qualities that make speech good; so the phrase names not merely unpleasant words but words drained of every redeeming attribute — and, the verse adds, they drain the speaker's பண்பு too.

செவிகைப்பச் சொற்பொறுக்கும் பண்புடை வேந்தன்
கவிகைக்கீழ்த் தங்கு முலகு

பண்பு — Paṇpu means quality of character; here it is the ruler's capacity to bear corrective words.

நவிறொறு நூனயம் போலும் பயிறொறும்
பண்புடை யாளர் தொடர்பு.

Paṇpu is good character made visible in conduct. Here it is the depth that friendship keeps discovering, just as study discloses more in a fine book.

விழையார் விழையப் படுப பழையார்கட்
பண்பிற் றலைப்பிரியா தார்.

Paṇpu means one’s own cultivated character. Loyalty is admirable when truth, dignity, and proportion remain stable under pressure.

பருகுவார் போலினும் பண்பிலார் கேண்மை
பெருகலிற் குன்ற லினிது.

Paṇpu means sound character expressed in conduct. Intense affection without honesty, respect, and basic care does not make a friendship good.

எண்ணென்ப வேனை யெழுத்தென்ப விவ்விரண்டுங்
கண்ணென்ப வாழு முயிர்க்கு

கண் means eye and functions here as a metaphor for enabling understanding, never a verdict about bodily completeness.

கடுஞ்சொல்லன் கண்ணில னாயி னெடுஞ்செல்வ
நீடின்றி யாங்கே கெடும்.

கண் literally means the eye, but Parimelazhagar reads கண் இலன் here as lacking கண்ணோட்டம்—merciful, humane regard. It concerns the ruler's way of seeing subjects, not physical eyesight.

ஒற்று முரைசான்ற நூலு மிவையிரண்டுந்
தெற்றென்க மன்னவன் கண்.

கண் means an eye. Here the singular predicate gathers two complementary ways of seeing—covert current intelligence and authoritative normative learning—without making either infallible.

குறிப்பிற் குறிப்புணரா வாயி னுறுப்பினு
ளென்ன பயத்தவோ கண்.

கண் is the eye, but here the eye is judged as an interpretive faculty. The question asks what sight accomplishes if it never reaches the intention carried by what it sees.

நுண்ணிய மென்பா ரளக்குங்கோல் காணுங்காற்
கண்ணல்ல தில்லை பிற.

கண் means eye. Here it is more than something that sees objects: it is the helper's measuring tool for working out a leader's intention.

உடுக்கை யிழந்தவன் கைபோல வாங்கே
யிடுக்கண் களைவதா நட்பு.

Kai, “hand,” is the image of practical readiness: distress is recognized and answered before a formal plea is assembled.

பொய்படு மொன்றோ புனைபூணுங் கையறியாப்
பேதை வினைமேற் கொளின்.

Kai means the practical method or skilled way of doing the work in kai aṟiyāp. It is learnable knowledge, not inherited status or a fixed measure of intelligence.

கவறுங் கழகமுங் கையுந் தருக்கி
யிவறியா ரில்லாகி யார்.

கை is the hand, and Parimelazhagar expands this third item as கைத்தொழில், the craft that lives in one. That expansion is what makes the list uneven. A die can be put away and a hall can be shut, but the third thing on the list is attached to the man at the wrist. It is also the item he is proudest of, since the pride named there covers all three at once. So the one he most wants credit for is the one nobody, including him, has any means of setting down.

உழவினார் கைம்மடங்கி னில்லை விழைவதூஉம்
விட்டேமென் பார்க்கு நிலை.

கை (kai) — a hand. It is the smallest word standing here and everything rests on it: if the hand of the people who plough folds and stops, nothing further happens anywhere else. Parimelazhagar is exact about which kind of folding is meant — கை அதனைச் செய்யாது மடங்குமாயின், the hand folds without doing the work. Not a hand that is hurt, and not a hand that is tired. A hand that could work and has stopped.

ஈர்ங்கை விதிரார் கயவர் கொடிறுடைக்குங்
கூன்கைய ரல்லா தவர்க்கு.

கை (kai) — hand. One of the first words any Tamil child learns, and this couplet is built entirely out of it. There are two hands in the verse. One is ஈர்ங்கை, the wet hand, open and holding almost nothing. The other is கூன்கை, the bent hand, closed into a fist. The whole meaning sits in the difference between an open hand and a closed one, and the verse asks which of the two gets an answer. In Tamil கை also turns up wherever giving is spoken of — கைம்மாறு is what you give back in return — so a hand and giving are close together in the language itself.

மேற்பிறந்தா ராயினுங் கல்லாதார் கீழ்ப்பிறந்துங்
கற்றா ரனைத்திலர் பாடு

பாடு means degree, standing, or greatness. Here it is the honour attributed to learning in contrast with inherited caste prestige.

சிதைவிடத் தொல்கா ருரவோர் புதையம்பிற்
பட்டுப்பா டூன்றுங் களிறு.

பாடு here is bearing, greatness, or dignified stature—the quality the wounded elephant is pictured as maintaining. It does not ask modern people to display untreated pain as proof of worth.

அடற்றகையு மாற்றலு மில்லெனினுந் தானை
படைத்தகையாற் பாடு பெறும்.

பாடு here means prestige or public distinction, not suffering and not proven competence.

இமையாரின் வாழினும் பாடிலரே யில்லா
ளமையார்டோ ளஞ்சு பவர்.

Pāṭu here means distinction, dignity, or excellence, not a song. Parimelazhagar interprets its absence as lack of masculinity under the old standard. A modern analogy can ask whether recognition is matched by independent judgement, while firmly rejecting the idea that fear under coercion erases a teen's human dignity.

நகையுள்ளு மின்னா திகழ்ச்சி பகையுள்ளும்
பண்புள பாடறிவார் மாட்டு.

பாடு is one of the most ordinary words in Tamil and it means what somebody is undergoing — their state, what they are carrying, in everyday speech the labour or hardship of a thing. The compound in this line is those who know another's பாடு, and the commentator gives it as those who conduct themselves knowing it. That is worth noticing carefully, because the second half is then not about an attitude at all. It is about a piece of knowledge, and the conduct follows from having it: you do not put contempt on somebody when you know what a thing already costs them. Which is also why the first half has to come first. It supplies exactly what there is to know.

தம்பொரு ளென்பதம் மக்கள் அவர்பொருள்
தந்தம் வினையான் வரும்

பொருள் means wealth, substance, the thing of real value — but also 'meaning' itself, what truly matters. English 'wealth' leans only material; பொருள் spans both worth you can hold and worth that gives life significance. The verse calls children one's பொருள், not to own them but to honour them as a home's most valuable holding — because the good they freely choose returns, in time, to the family that raised them.

காக்க பொருளா அடக்கத்தை ஆக்கம்
அதனின் ஊங்கில்லை உயிர்க்கு.

பொருள் means a thing of worth — wealth, substance, also 'meaning' itself. Valluvar says guard self-control 'பொருளா,' as a treasure. English 'treasure' catches the value, but பொருள் is richer: it is the word for both material wealth and essential meaning, so to hold restraint as your பொருள் is to make it both your fortune and the point of the matter.

சினத்தைப் பொருளென்று கொண்டவன் கேடு
நிலத்தறைந்தான் கைபிழையா தற்று

பொருள் can mean a valued thing, substance, or resource. In this setting it exposes the error of treating anger as a prized quality that proves one’s power.

பொருளல் லவற்றைப் பொருளென் றுணரு
மருளானா மாணாப் பிறப்பு

Poruḷ can mean a thing, its meaning, or what is real and significant in context.

ஆற்றுபவர்க்கு மரண்பொரு ளஞ்சித்தற்
போற்று பவர்க்கும் பொருள்.

பொருள் here means a valuable strategic asset, not merely an object or money. Repeating it for both groups gives equal weight to the fort's value in outward war and inward defence.

தெருளாதான் மெய்ப்பொருள் கண்டாற்றா றேரி
னருளாதான் செய்யு மறம்

Ultimate or true reality in the commentary's philosophical comparison. It is not merely a correct fact; the word raises the standard from knowing information to possessing the discernment that makes insight genuine.

எப்பொரு ளெத்தன்மைத் தாயினு மப்பொருண்
மெய்ப்பொருள் காண்ப தறிவு

Meypporuḷ is the true or underlying reality to be discerned in the particular thing.

கற்றீண்டு மெய்ப்பொருள் கண்டார் தலைப்படுவர்
மற்றீண்டு வாரா நெறி

Meypporuḷ is ultimate truth in; the learner must realize it rather than merely repeat a teacher's personality.

எப்பொருள் யார்யார்வாய்க் கேட்பினு மப்பொருண்
மெய்ப்பொருள் காண் பதறிவு

மெய்ப்பொருள் means ‘the true substance, real import, or genuine benefit.’ It asks the listener to reach what is actually present beneath a speaker’s status or style.

மிகன்மேவன் மெய்ப்பொருள் காண ரிகன்மேவ
லின்னா வறிவி னவர்.

Meypporuḷ means the true, substantive principle behind a matter.

பணிவுடையன் இன்சொலன் ஆதல் ஒருவற்கு
அணியல்ல மற்றுப் பிற

அணி (aṇi) is an ornament—something that beautifies. The Kural relocates beauty from what is worn to the paired conduct of humility and pleasant speech, without shaming bodies or cultural adornment.

பணியுமா மென்றும் பெருமை சிறுமை
யணியுமாந் தன்னை வியந்து.

அணி means to put on, to wear, to deck out — it is the ordinary verb behind the words for jewellery and ornament, and you would use it today for putting on a garland or a watch. Everything about the word says added from outside. Nothing you அணி grows there; it is brought and placed, and it comes off again. That is why it is the right verb for the second half, and it is set against a verb one sound away from it that means to go low. Two nearly identical words, one adding upward and one moving downward, with the whole contrast of the chapter running between them.

அணியன்றோ நாணுடைமை சான்றோர்க் கஃதின்றேற்
பிணியன்றோ பீடு நடை.

அணி (aṇi) — an ornament, a worn jewel. Parimelazhagar reads it as ஆபரணம், something added to a person that lets what is already there be seen properly. It is not the dignity itself. A person can have the bearing and be missing the ornament, and that gap is the whole subject here.

பிணையேர் மடநோக்கு நாணு முடையாட்
கணியெவனோ வேதில தந்து.

Ornament, and also the act of wearing one. The couplet uses the same word for the gaze and the modesty she already has, so that the jewellery arrives as a competitor to them rather than an addition.

படைகுடி கூழமைச்சு நட்பர ணாறு
முடையா னரசரு ளேறு

அரண் — Araṇ means a fort or protective stronghold; for children it can suggest a safe structure, never permission to shut people out unfairly.

அறிவற்றங் காக்குங் கருவி செறுவார்க்கு
முள்ளழிக்க லாகா வரண்

அரண் means ‘fortress’ or ‘strong defence.’ The image makes learned judgment an inward protection that hostile pressure cannot simply knock down.

முரண்சேர்ந்த மொய்ம்பி னவர்க்கு மரண்சேர்ந்தா
மாக்கம் பலவுந் தரும்

அரண் (araṇ) names fortification and defensive protection. It gives additional safety and continuity even to people who already possess power and skill.

மணிநீருமண்ணு மலையு மணிநிழற்
காடு முடைய தரண்.

அரண் means a strong place built and situated for protection. In this lesson, the word includes the fort together with the four natural features that make its site defensible.

அருள்வெஃகி ஆற்றின்கண் நின்றான் பொருள்வெஃகிப்
பொல்லாத சூழக் கெடும்.

அருள் means grace, compassion, the tender benevolence that the Kural holds as the heart of virtue. Here it is the very thing the seeker loves — 'அருள் வெஃகி,' desiring grace — and yet greed undoes him. The poignancy is in the contrast: அருள் is the highest aspiration, and வெஃகு (greed) the lowest pull, shown destroying each other in one heart. To desire அருள் is to have to refuse greed.

தன்னூன் பெருக்கற்குத் தான்பிறி தூனுண்பா
னெங்ஙன மாளு மருள்

அருள் here is compassion as a power that governs conduct, not a tender feeling kept separate from appetite. The question asks whether another living being's body is allowed to matter when one's own body is being nourished.

அருளல்ல தியாதெனிற் கொல்லாமை கோறல்
பொருளல்ல தவ்வூன் றினல்

அருள் means compassion or mercy toward life. This Kural makes it concrete for a child: begin by not killing, and ask a safe adult to help when protection is difficult.

பொருள்கெடுத்துப் பொய்மேற் கொளீஇ யருள்கெடுத்
தல்ல லுழப்பிக்குஞ் சூது.

அருள் is usually given as grace or compassion, and Parimelazhagar adds the phrase that changes it: மனத்து எழும் அருள், the compassion that rises in the mind. It is not something a person performs but something that comes up in them unbidden. That is why its destruction is invisible from outside. A man can keep saying and doing every correct thing while nothing whatever is rising, and the only person who can observe the difference is him, afterwards.

திறனறிந்து சொல்லுக சொல்லை யறனும்
பொருளு மதனினூஉங் கில்.

அறிந்து makes audience adaptation a prior act of discernment, not a guess made after the listener is already lost.

சொல்லுக சொல்லைப் பிறிதோர்சொ லச்சொல்லை
வெல்லுஞ்சொ லின்மை யறிந்து.

அறிந்து makes examination prior to utterance: the teen must know why the available countercase no longer defeats the exact claim.

தார்தாங்கிச் செல்வது தானை தலைவந்த
போர்தாங்குந் தன்மை யறிந்து.

அறிந்து places tactical reading before action: understand the incoming formation and the disposition needed to meet it.

குணனுங் குடிமையுங் குற்றமுங் குன்றா
வினனு மறிந்தியாக்க நட்பு.

அறிந்து means coming to know the listed qualities through inquiry before forming the bond, not making a guess from reputation.

வசையென்ப வையத்தார்க் கெல்லா மிசையென்னு
மெச்சம் பெறாஅ விடின்

எச்சம் is what remains after something else has passed. Here the commentary identifies that remainder as renown; modern examples may show the useful, truthfully credited trace through which such regard endures.

மனந்தூயார்க் கெச்சநன் றாகு மினந்தூயார்க்கு
கில்லைநன் றாகா வினை

எச்சம் (eccam) means ‘what remains.’ Parimelazhagar specifies children or posterity here. The word names intergenerational continuation, not fame, institutional legacy alone, or proof that virtue determines a child's character.

வினைபகை யென்றிரண் டினெச்ச நினையுங்காற்
றீயெச்சம் போலத் தெறும்.

எச்சம் is a remainder left after most of something has been dealt with. Here its danger lies in retaining the capacity to grow and restore the original harm.

எச்சமென் றென்னெண்ணுங் கொல்லோ வொருவரா
னச்சப் படாஅ தவன்.

எச்சம் (eccam) — what is left over, the remainder. An ordinary accounting word, used here for the part of a life that goes on standing in a place after the person has gone from it.

எனைத்தானு மெஞ்ஞான்றும் யார்க்கு மனத்தானா
மாணாசெய் யாமை தலை

எஞ்ஞான்றும் means ‘at any time’ or ‘always.’ Kindness does not take a break when the moment seems brief or unimportant.

எல்லார்க்கு மெல்ல நிகழ்பவை யெஞ்ஞான்றும்
வல்லறிதல் வேந்தன் றொழில்.

எஞ்ஞான்றும் means always or day by day. For a child it never means watching others continually; the safe analogy is reporting a noticed danger without delay.

இல்லாள்கட் டாழ்ந்த வியல்பின்மை யெஞ்ஞான்று
நல்லாரு ணாணுத் தரும்.

Eññāṉṟum means always or whenever the condition recurs. The commentary uses it for the shame repeatedly felt when the man enters good company. In a child's analogy, repeated fearful changes deserve repeated, patient offers of safety; the word does not authorize repeated teasing or blame.

எண்சேர்ந்த நெஞ்சத் திடனுடையார்க் கெஞ்ஞான்றும்
பெண்சேர்ந்தாம் பேதைமை யில்.

Eññāṉṟum stretches across every time: ‘ever’ or ‘at any time.’ When il closes the statement, the result is ‘never present.’ That time-force matters because the habit of checking works before an unfair trade, unsafe mixture, or exclusion can become a loss.

அடல்வேண்டு மைந்தன் புலத்தை விடல்வேண்டும்
வேண்டிய வெல்லா மொருங்கு

ஒருங்கு: ஐந்தன் புலத்தை refers to the five fields of sensory experience. ஒழித்தல் and விடல் join inner discipline with outward relinquishment.

ஒண்பொருள் காழ்ப்ப வியற்றியார்க் கெண்பொரு
ளேனை யிரண்டு மொருங்கு.

ஒருங்கு means virtue and wholesome enjoyment can be supported together rather than treating life as a forced choice between them.

இற்பிறந்தார் கண்ணல்ல தில்லை யியல்பாகச்
செப்பமும் நாணு மொருங்கு.

ஒருங்கு means together, jointly, as one motion, and Parimelazhagar expands it simply as சேர, joined. Tamil already has ordinary ways to say and, so this word is not doing that work. It says the two do not merely both exist in a person but arrive as a single thing. That is what makes the line a claim about a combination rather than a list of two virtues, and it is why a person holding either half alone can sincerely believe they hold the whole.

கரப்பிடும்பை யில்லாரைக் காணி னிரப்பிடும்பை
யெல்லா மொருங்கு கெடும்.

ஒருங்கு (oruṅku) — together, as one lot. English usually turns it into 'at once', which can be read as 'immediately'; Parimelazhagar settles it the other way. He writes சேரக்கெடும், they perish joined together — a set going as a set, rather than separate reliefs arriving quickly one after another. The speed is already carried by the word for seeing. This is the word that makes the second line a count instead of a feeling: எல்லாம் ஒருங்கு, all of them, in one lot. Modern Tamil keeps the root alive in ஒருங்கிணைப்பு, the bringing of separate things into one.

"கொடையளி செங்கோல் குடியோம்பல் நான்கும்
உடையானாம் வேந்தர்க் கொளி"

ஒளி — Oḷi means light or radiance; here it describes the exemplary quality of a ruler who possesses all four public virtues.

மன்னர்க்கு மன்னுதல் செங்கோன்மை யஃதின்றேன்
மன்னாவா மன்னர்க் கொளி.

ஒளி literally evokes light and here means royal glory or renown. The image asks whether the brightness around office has the justice needed to remain after spectacle fades.

உட்கப் படாஅ ரொளியிழப்ப ரெஞ்ஞான்றுங்
கட்காதல் கொண்டொழுகு வார்.

ஒளி is light — an actual lamp's light before it is anyone's reputation. Tamil uses the same word for a person's standing, so what is lost here is not described as status slipping but as a light going out. The image also decides who is responsible: a lamp is not extinguished by the people who stop seeing by it. They only stop coming to the room.

இளிவரின் வாழாத மான முடையா
ரொளிதொழு தேத்து முலகு.

ஒளி is light — the plain everyday word, the one you would use for a lamp or for daylight coming into a room. What matters is where it sits in the sentence. It is the object of the world's reverence, and Parimelazhagar names it exactly: the form their fame takes. So the thing being bowed to is not a person and not a deed. It is a shape held in other people's minds, which is why it can persist for thirty years in a street without the person it belongs to ever hearing about it. A light is also something you can only see from outside. Nobody stands inside their own.

நத்தம்போற் கேடு முளதாகுஞ் சாக்காடும்
வித்தகர்க் கல்லா லரிது

கேடு means loss or damage. Kural 235 makes the unusual claim that a loss can become gain for renown; it does not say damage is normally good or should be caused.

சினத்தைப் பொருளென்று கொண்டவன் கேடு
நிலத்தறைந்தான் கைபிழையா தற்று

கேடு means ruin, loss, or harm. It is the certain result awaiting the person who mistakes anger for a possession worth keeping.

இகலிற் கெதிர்சாய்த லாக்க மதனை
மிகலூக்கி னூக்குமாங் கேடு.

Kēṭu means the loss, damage, or ruin that advances when hostility is deliberately increased.

இகல்காணா னாக்கம் வருங்கா லதனை
மிகல்காணுங் கேடு தரற்கு.

Kēṭu means loss, damage, or ruin; here it is the extra harm a person can help bring by magnifying hostility.

அறனறிந்து மூத்த வறிவுடையார் கேண்மை
திறனறிந்து தேர்ந்து கொளல்

கேண்மை (kēṇmai) means an intimate, sustaining friendship—not a casual contact or a famous name.

நிறைநீர நீரவர்கேண்மைப் பிறைமதிப்
பின்னீர பேதையார் நட்பு.

Kēṇmai is close friendship. Here its quality becomes visible in whether the bond steadily gains substance or loses it after an early peak.

அழிவந்த செய்யினு மன்பறா ரன்பின்
வழிவந்த கேண்மை யவர்.

Kēṇmai means close friendship. Here that friendship grew through love, so one bad act does not force the child to become hateful.

பெரிதினிது பேதையார் கேண்மை பிரிவின்கட்
பீழை தருவதொன் றில்.

Kēṇmai means friendship or close association; the irony tests whether that association ever contained mutual care worth grieving.

உறாஅதோ வூரறிந்த கௌவை யதனைப்
பெறாஅது பெற்றன்ன நீர்த்து.

The talk of the town — the rumour that rises when people notice two names belong together. In this chapter it is never merely noise; it is a force that acts on the lovers, and here it acts as a kind of possession.

ஊரவர் கௌவை எருவாக வன்னைசொன்
னீராக நீளுமிந் நோய்.

Kauvai is the noise a town makes about a person: rumour, the buzz of many mouths repeating one name. It is not one person's accusation. It is a sound with no single owner, which is why it cannot be answered, and why the poem treats it as something spread over a field rather than something said to a face.

நெய்யா லெரிநுதுப்பே மென்றற்றாற் கௌவையாற்
காம நுதுப்பே மெனல்.

Gossip, the town's talk — the same word that appears in the two couplets just before this one, where it manures a crop. It is not private opinion but noise made in the open, by people who have no stake in the matter. Valluvar treats that noise as a substance with a physical effect, like ghee poured on a flame.

தாம்வேண்டி னல்குவர் காதலர் யாம்வேண்டுங்
கௌவை யெடுக்குமிவ் வூர்.

Kauvai is the town's talk, the noise a place makes when it has noticed two people. Everywhere else in this chapter it is something that happens to the lovers. In this last couplet the woman calls it yam vendum kauvai, the kauvai we want: the same word, now an object of desire rather than of fear.

இறந்த வெகுளியிற் றீதே சிறந்த
வுவகை மகிழ்ச்சியிற் சோர்வு.

சோர்வு (cōrvu) can mean slackening or lapse. Here Parimelazhagar explains it as forgetfulness arising from excessive elation in a ruler, not physical tiredness and not ordinary joy.

ஆக்கமுங் கேடு மதனால் வருதலாற்
காத்தோம்பல் சொல்லின்கட் சோர்வு.

சோர்வு here is a consequential lapse in wording, omission, or verification; the adult scenes show why guarding it belongs to the duty itself.

கள்ளுண்ணாப் போழ்திற் களித்தானைக் காணுங்கா
லுள்ளான்கொ லுண்டதன் சோர்வு.

சோர்வு is physical before it is anything else — a rope that has lost its pull, a shoulder that has come down. English versions reach for folly or for weakness, and both quietly promote it into a moral quality. It is not one. What would have to be identified in the other man is an appearance, and an appearance is the category of thing you have never once observed on yourself.

நற்பொரு ணன்குணர்ந்து சொல்லினு நல்கூர்ந்தார்
சொற்பொருள் சோர்வு படும்.

சோர்வு (cōrvu) — a slackening, a slipping out of hold. Today the word mostly means tiredness in a body; here it is what happens to the meaning of what was said. Parimelazhagar renders சோர்வு படும் as இன்மையைத் தலைப்படும், it meets with non-existence. The words were spoken and were understood, and then the sense they were carrying simply stopped standing. In this line the thing that goes slack is சொற்பொருள், which is what படும் takes as its subject — not the person who spoke.

கைவேல் களிற்றொடு போக்கி வருபவன்
மெய்வேல் பறியா நகும்.

நகும் means he smiles. The smile expresses the poem's extreme martial delight at finding another spear; it is not approval of pain, untreated injury, or self-harm.

இலமென் றசைஇ யிருப்பாரைக் காணி
னிலமென்னு நல்லா ணகும்.

நகும் (nakum) — smiles. The verb நகு runs the whole way from a small smile to open laughter, and the noun from it, நகை, is the everyday Tamil for laughter now. Parimelazhagar fixes which end of that range applies here, and he does it in three words: தன்னுள்ளே நகாநிற்கும், she goes on smiling inside herself. There is no audience anywhere in that phrase. Nobody is being laughed at in front of anybody, and nobody in the second line is watching. A sentence gets said, the ground knows what is standing behind it, and the smile never leaves the inside of her. Aiyar keeps that: 'laugheth to herself'.

யானோக்குங் காலை நிலனோக்கு நோக்காக்காற்
றானோக்கி மெல்ல நகும்.

Here நகும் is not laughter. It is the quiet gladness that rises inside a person and only just reaches the face as a small smile — joy kept private, escaping a little.

குறிக்கொண்டு நோக்காமை யல்லா லொருகண்
சிறக்கணித்தாள் போல நகும்.

Smiles — and in this couplet it is the smile that comes afterwards, inward and unexplained, not a smile offered to anyone.

சிறியா ருணர்ச்சியு ளில்லை பெரியாரைப்
பேணிக்கொள் வேமென்னு நோக்கு.

நோக்கு is built from the verb meaning to look, and it means a look, and then by extension an aim, a view, a purpose held in mind. Both senses run together, which is why it is the right word here: what is missing is not an ability and not a permission, it is the turning of attention in somebody's direction with something wanted from it. Parimelazhagar renders it as a thought held in the mind. And because it is a look with an intention behind it, it explains why the absence is invisible from inside — nothing happens when you do not look at something, and nothing is what you would remember.

இருநோக் கிவளுண்க ணுள்ள தொருநோக்கு
நோய்நோக்கொன் றந்நோய் மருந்து.

A look, a gaze, the act of looking. The couplet repeats it four times in two lines, and each repetition changes its weight: two looks, one look, a look that sickens, a look that cures. Valluvar builds the whole verse out of one ordinary word.

செறாஅச் சிறுசொல்லுஞ் செற்றார்போ னோக்கு
முறாஅர்போன் றுற்றார் குறிப்பு.

A look, and also the act of looking. Tamil treats it as something done, not something that merely happens to the face, which is why a look can be aimed, borrowed, or faked. In this couplet the look is borrowed from an enemy and worn on purpose.

கண்ணொடு கண்ணிணை நோக்கொக்கின் வாய்ச்சொற்க
ளென்ன பயனு மில.

A look, a gaze. In this chapter நோக்கு is not a small word: the whole chapter is built on it, and here it is the thing that carries a message all the way across a room. The couplet does not say the eyes opened; it says the look was the same on both sides.

புகழ்புரிந்த இல்லிலோர்க் கில்லை இகழ்வார்முன்
ஏறுபோல் பீடு நடை

பீடு means dignity, greatness, a proud and stately bearing — here in பீடு நடை, the upright, lion-like walk of someone who carries themselves with self-respect. English 'pride' can sound like vanity; பீடு is the opposite — the calm, earned dignity of a person with nothing to be ashamed of. The verse says this bearing rests on an honourable home: where the household keeps its good name, a person walks tall even before those who would belittle them.

அணியன்றோ நாணுடைமை சான்றோர்க் கஃதின்றேற்
பிணியன்றோ பீடு நடை.

பீடு (pīṭu) — greatness carried in the body: the amount of room a person seems to take up when they walk in. Here it is joined to நடை, so it is not a feeling but a gait, something other people watch. Nothing in these two lines calls the bearing itself false, and it is exactly as impressive either way. That is what makes the difficulty hard to name.

கருமஞ் செயவொருவன் கைதூவே னென்னும்
பெருமையிற் பீடுடைய தில்.

பீடு (pīṭu) — the standing a thing has when nothing else is above it. Parimelazhagar reads it as மேம்பாடு, the quality of being higher. The second line does not say the resolve is admirable or useful. It sets it beside everything else a person could be respected for and says that nothing possessing more பீடு exists. It says so while the work is still half done. The word is about weight, not about warmth.

ஒண்ணுதற் கோஒ உடைந்ததே ஞாட்பினு
ணண்ணாரு முட்குமென் பீடு.

Pīṭu is not brute force. It is strength that carries standing with it — the kind of might that gives a person a name, so that even those who have never met him respect or fear it. The couplet chooses this large word first, so that the fall which follows is felt at full height.

அறன்நோக்கி ஆற்றும்கொல் வையம் புறன்நோக்கிப்
புன்சொல் உரைப்பான் பொறை.

In the phrase உரைப்பான் பொறை, Parimelazhagar explains பொறை as the speaker's bodily weight or load. The earth literally bears that load; the verse then imagines her enduring it because bearing such cruelty may be her own virtue. English must therefore preserve the physical burden as well as the rhetorical idea of endurance, rather than translating the word only as patience.

கல்லார்ப் பிணிக்குங் கடுங்கோ லதுவல்ல
தில்லை நிலக்குப் பொறை.

பொறை here means a burden or weight, not patience. The ruler's alliance with advisers ignorant of the required works is called the heaviest excess load the earth must bear.

சான்றவர் சான்றாண்மை குன்றி னிருநிலந்தான்
தாங்காது மன்னோ பொறை.

பொறை comes from பொறு, to bear, and it carries both of that verb's results in one form: the thing borne, and the bearing of it. So it is the word for a load, and it is equally the word for forbearance — what Tamil calls பொறுமை is the same root doing the same work on a different kind of weight. The line closes on it. Read as burden alone, the second half is geology; read with both senses live, what the earth is said to give out under is its load and its patience in the same syllable. English has no single word that does this, which is why every translation has to choose one half and lose the other.

அமரகத்து வன்கண்ணர் போலத் தமரகத்து
மாற்றுவார் மேற்றே பொறை.

பொறை (poṟai) — a load, the weight that has to be borne. Tamil also uses பொறை for patience, and the two are not separate words but one root, பொறு, to bear, showing two faces. Which face is wanted here is settled by Parimelazhagar, who expands the line as அதன் பாரம் பொறுத்தல், the bearing of its weight. It is the last word of the two lines, arriving after the sentence has already said where it goes. Nothing in it describes the person underneath it: a load has a size, and a size is not a standing.

மருந்தாகித் தப்பா மரத்தற்றாற் செல்வம்
பெருந்தகை யான்கட் படின்

மருந்து is medicine or remedy. Parimelazhagar makes the tree unusually complete: every part reliably serves against illness. Applied to wealth, the word suggests comprehensive beneficial use; it does not claim that wealth literally treats every disease or replaces skilled care.

உற்றவன் றீர்ப்பான் மருந்துழைச் செல்வானென்
றப்பானாற் கூற்றே மருந்து.

மருந்து ordinarily names a substance, which is what makes its use here startling. The same word stands twice in one sentence, once for the substance and once for a thing of four parts that has the substance inside it as a quarter. Parimelazhagar keeps them apart with care, glossing the inner one as the instrument the physician works with and the outer one as what constitutes medicine for a disease. English has no word that will do both. Remedy refuses to stretch around a sick woman and her neighbour, and treatment sounds like a procedure rather than a company of people.

மருந்தோமற் றூனோம்பும் வாழ்க்கை பெருந்தகைமை
பீடழிய வந்த விடத்து.

மருந்து is medicine, a remedy, the thing you take for a condition — the plain modern word, still used every day. In older Tamil the word reaches further than anything on a shelf, as far as the legendary elixir, and the word notes on this page set that fuller sense out. Both senses are live here, and both make the same demand: a medicine has to be a medicine for something, so naming the ailment comes before judging the cure. That is why what stands here is a question rather than an accusation. It is asking what this preservation treats, and it is a question that most long-running arrangements have never once been made to answer.

பிணிக்கு மருந்து பிறம னணியிழை
தன்னோய்க்குத் தானே மருந்து.

Medicine, remedy. In everyday Tamil marundhu is always something brought in from outside the illness. The couplet keeps that ordinary sense and then breaks it: here the remedy is not brought in at all, because it is the same person the sickness came from.

அறனிழுக்கா தல்லவை நீக்கி மறனிழுக்கா
மான முடைய தரசு

மானம் — Māṉam means honour or dignified self-respect; here it accompanies courage but never places personal pride above justice.

இவறலு மாண்பிறந்த மானமு மாணா
வுவகையு மேத மிறைக்கு

மானம் usually means honor or self-respect; here it is honor severed from excellence, a false pride that protects status at the cost of right conduct.

மயிர்நீப்பின் வாழாக் கவரிமா வன்னா
ருயிர்நீப்பர் மானம் வரின்.

மானம் is the title of this whole chapter, where it means honour, self-respect, the refusal of what degrades. Here it is doing the opposite job. In this line it names the humiliation itself — the thing that arrives — and Parimelazhagar makes that plain by calling it a limit that is reached. So one word covers both the thing worth keeping and the event that threatens it, which is why the phrase can be read two ways by anybody who does not know the chapter. Modern Tamil kept both: it is still the word for dignity, and still the word in the phrase for being humiliated.

குடிசெய்வார்க் கில்லை பருவ மடிசெய்து
மானங் கருதக் கெடும்.

மானம் (māṉam) — the regard a person keeps for their own standing. The same word names the honour that refuses to do a thing which would genuinely lower the one who does it, and that honour is worth having; this line is about the other use of it, where nothing lowers anybody and what is set against an honest morning's work is only a picture of oneself. Parimelazhagar puts a verb on it — மானத்தையும் கருதுவாராயின், if they also stop to weigh their dignity — so the fault named is not possessing the feeling. It is consulting it about a job.

இருந்தோம்பி இல்வாழ்வ தெல்லாம் விருந்தோம்பி
வேளாண்மை செய்தற் பொருட்டு

வேளாண்மை (vēḷāṇmai) often means agriculture today. In this Kural and commentary it carries the older ethical sense of beneficence—doing useful good for guests. That shift is easy to lose in a one-word translation.

தாளாற்றித் தந்த பொருளெல்லாந் தக்கார்க்கு
வேளாண்மை செய்தற் பொருட்டு

In this chapter, வேளாண்மை does not mean agriculture, its familiar modern sense. It names beneficent help—using one's capacity in fitting service to others. That older contextual sense turns the verse from a statement about owning wealth into a statement about what earned resources are for.

தாளாண்மை யென்னும் தகைமக்கட் டங்கிற்றே
வேளாண்மை என்னுஞ் செருக்கு.

வேளாண்மை here is beneficence—the active work of bringing benefit to others—not the modern word for agriculture. Its distinction rests on the perseverance that makes help dependable.

தாளாண்மை யில்லாதான் வேளாண்மை பேடிகை
வாளாண்மை போலக் கெடும்.

வேளாண்மை here means beneficence: benefit actually brought to another. A visible generous act that lacks the capability to deliver that benefit has not yet earned the name.

உயர்வகலந் திண்மை யருமையிந் நான்கி
னமைவர ணென்றுரைக்கு நூல்.

அருமை usually suggests rarity or preciousness, but here it means difficulty of access for an attacker. The surrounding military nouns decide that contextual choice.

செயற்கரிய யாவுள நட்பி னதுபோல்
வினைக்கரிய யாவுள காப்பு.

அருமை holds both rarity and difficulty: trustworthy friendship takes repeated, freely chosen acts to form.

மலரன்ன கண்ணா ளருமை யறியா
தலரெமக் கீந்ததிவ் வூர்.

Rareness — the quality of being hard to obtain. In this couplet it is not a compliment paid to her beauty but a measurement of distance: how nearly impossible it is for him to reach her. The town's talk is careless precisely because the town has never taken that measurement.

அலரெழ வாருயிர் நிற்கு மதனைப்
பலரறியார் பாக்கியத் தால்.

Alar means both a flower opening and the talk of a town spreading. The same word covers the blossom and the gossip, so the rumour in this chapter is never only ugly — it opens, it is seen by everyone, and it is what makes the hero's love visible.

மலரன்ன கண்ணா ளருமை யறியா
தலரெமக் கீந்ததிவ் வூர்.

Town talk, rumour. The same word also means a flower opening out, and the image is exact: talk unfolds petal by petal in public, and once it has opened nobody can close it again. The couplet calls this open talk a gift, which is the strangest word in the verse.

கண்டது மன்னு மொருநா லலர்மன்னுந்
திங்களைப் பாம்புகொண் டற்று.

Alar is the word for talk that has opened out. Its root sense is a flower opening — a bud that was closed one morning and is wide open by noon. That is exactly the shape of the couplet: something small and folded is left alone for a day, and it is found spread open in every direction.

அறனெனப் பட்டதே இல்வாழ்க்கை அஃதும்
பிறன்பழிப்ப தில்லாயின் நன்று

அறன் (a form of அறம்) is virtue, righteousness, the moral order of right living — the great word that titles this whole first book of the Kural. The verse says household life is 'what is singled out and called அறன்' — virtue without qualification. English 'virtue' is right, but அறம்/அறன் is broader and deeper: it is the whole fabric of right conduct, duty, and cosmic-moral order — and the verse's quiet boldness is to plant that vast word squarely in the ordinary home rather than in the renouncer's forest.

அறனிழுக்கா தல்லவை நீக்கி மறனிழுக்கா
மான முடைய தரசு

அறன் — Aṟaṉ means virtue or moral right; here it is the path from which government must not depart.

அறனறிந் தான்றமைந்த சொல்லானெஞ் ஞான்றுந்
திறனறிந்தான் றேர்ச்சித் துணை.

அறன் is right moral order or justice. The counsellor first knows this standard, then brings learned speech and practical judgement to its service.

பொய்யாமை பொய்யாமை யாற்றி னறம்பிற
செய்யாமை செய்யாமை நன்று

ஆற்றின் means if one is able to practise it; here the condition points to sustaining non-lying without lapse.

ஆற்றின் வருந்தா வருத்தம் பலர்நின்று
போற்றினும் பொத்துப் படும்.

ஆற்றின் means by the proper way or effective method. It names the missing channel through which effort must travel to reach completion.

பெருமை யுடையவ ராற்றுவா ராற்றி
னருமை யுடைய செயல்.

ஆற்றின் is built on ஆறு, which is the ordinary word for a road or a way — the same one you would use for a river's course. With the ending it means by that road, by the way of doing it. Set beside it, one word earlier, is a form that sounds nearly identical and means being able to carry something through. So capacity and route are placed together and made to rhyme, and the line is saying that the second is how the first happens. Parimelazhagar makes the point explicit with a word meaning by the path, and adds that the deed is carried right to its end. Not force, then. A road, walked to the far side of it.

கொடுப்பதூஉந் துய்ப்பதூஉ மில்லார்க் கடுக்கிய
கோடியுண் டாயினு மில்.

இல் (il) — is not. One short word, and the whole line turns on it: the crores are there, and it says they are not.

நல்லாண்மை யென்ப தொருவற்குத் தான்பிறந்த
வில்லாண்மை யாக்கிக் கொளல்.

இல் (il) — a house. In Tamil the word means the household more than the building: the people inside it and the work that keeps it going. It is joined to the word after it and printed inside வில்லாண்மை, and the reading opens it out as இல் ஆண்மை, the running of a house. Parimelazhagar, explaining it, writes குடி instead — a family and the line it comes from — so the house being spoken of is the family you were born into, and not a set of rooms.

தம்மி லிருந்து தமதுபாத் துண்டற்றா
லம்மா வரிவை முயக்கு.

"இல்" means house — but in old Tamil it carries the settled sense of a home one belongs to, the same root that gives இல்லறம், the household life. The couplet says "தம் இல்", their own home. The joy being described is not located in a hiding place or a borrowed corner. It has an address.

இன்சொலா லீத்தளிக்க வல்லாற்குத் தன்சொலாற்
றான்கண் டனைத்திவ் வுலகு

இன்சொல் — Iṉcol means pleasant, gracious, or considerate speech; here it accompanies giving and protection rather than replacing them.

கொடுத்தலு மின்சொலு மாற்றி னடுக்கிய
சுற்றத்தாற் சுற்றப் படும்.

இன்சொல் (iṉcol) means pleasant, gracious speech. In this context it accompanies needed help: it protects the relative's dignity and closeness without becoming flattery, manipulation, or a demand for loyalty.

அன்பின் விழையார் பொருள்விழையு மாய்தொடியா
ரின்சொ லிழுக்குத் தரும்.

இன்சொல் is pleasant or sweet speech. Here its sweetness is not condemned by itself: it is the convincing surface of affection claimed for material gain, and its effect is measured by the misery that follows the transfer.

அறத்தான் வருவதே இன்பம் மற்றெல்லாம்
புறத்த புகழும் இல

இன்பம் means 'joy, delight, pleasure' — and it is one of the great aims of life in Tamil thought (இன்பம், the third of அறம்-பொருள்-இன்பம், virtue-wealth-pleasure). English flattens 'pleasure' and 'happiness' into near-opposites; இன்பம் covers the whole range. The verse's claim is pointed: not all இன்பம் is equal — only இன்பம் that flows from அறம் is the real thing, while the rest, however sweet, sits with துன்பம் (sorrow). The word's dignity as a life-aim is exactly why Valluvar is careful to say which kind counts.

இன்பத்து ளின்பம் பயக்கு மிகலென்னுந்
துன்பத்துட் டுன்பங் கெடின்.

Iṉpam here is the deep relief and restored capacity that arise when hostility no longer organizes one's attention or common life.

இன்ப மொருவற் கிரத்த லிரந்தவை
துன்ப முறாஅ வரின்.

இன்பம் (iṉpam) — pleasure, gladness; the plainest Tamil word for it, and the word the first line opens on. Parimelazhagar does not let it stand as an identity. He writes இன்பத்திற்கு ஏதுவாம் — a cause of pleasure — and adds தானும், even it, of itself. That small difference is the whole reading: the gladness is not sitting inside the act of asking, waiting to be felt. It is what the act turns out to have been, once the answer has come the way it came. And nothing in the word touches the amount received.

முயற்சி திருவினை யாக்கு முயற்றின்மை
யின்மை புகுத்தி விடும்.

இன்மை is lack or poverty. It names a material condition, not a person's worth, effort, goodness, or right to receive care.

இன்மையி னின்னாத தியாதெனி னின்மையி
னின்மையே யின்னா தது.

இன்மை (iṉmai) — not-having. It is built on இல், 'is not', with the ending that turns a quality into a state, so what it names is an absence and not a person. That matters here more than anywhere: what is being set against every other hardship is a condition, and there is no word for a human being anywhere in the two lines. Parimelazhagar puts வறுமை, poverty, in its place when he explains it, and வறுமை is the narrower word; இன்மை on its own is simply the not-having of what a life needs.

இன்மை யிடும்பை யிரந்துதீர் வாமென்னும்
வன்மையின் வன்பாட்ட தில்.

இன்மை (iṉmai) simply means not having, and these two lines open on it. Inside the word there is nothing but இல், the plain Tamil for is not, given an ending that turns it into something you can name. Parimelazhagar's phrase for what it brings is வறுமையான் வரும் துன்பத்தை, the suffering that comes of poverty. Nobody is being scolded here for not having something. Not having is not a fault and never was, and the line stops somewhere else entirely — at what a person decides to do about it.

இயல்பாகு நோன்பிற்கொன் றின்மை யுடைமை
மயலாகு மற்றும் பெயர்த்து

உடைமை: மயல் ஆகும் means it becomes delusion. The warning is about the mental bond created by ownership, not the material alone.

இன்மையி னின்னா துடைமை முறைசெய்யா
மன்னவன் கோற்கீழ்ப் படின்.

உடைமை means possessing property. Its meaning is deliberately reversed by the condition of tyranny: what should support life becomes the very thing that exposes its holder to harassment and loss.

மைய லொருவன் களித்தற்றாற் பேதைதன்
கையொன் றுடைமை பெறின்.

Uṭaimai means possession or control of a resource; here it is the added capacity that makes an existing decision pattern produce larger consequences.

ஓர்த்துள்ள முள்ள துணரி னொருதலையாப்
பேர்த்துள்ள வேண்டா பிறப்பு

Uḷḷam means the mind or inner faculty that examines and realizes here.

உள்ள முடைமை யுடைமை பொருளுடைமை
நில்லாது நீங்கி விடும்.

உள்ளம் here does not mean thought or emotion in general. It carries the contextual sense ஊக்கம்—the inward resolve treated as an enduring possession when material property proves unstable.

உள்ளற்க வுள்ளஞ் சிறுகுவ கொள்ளற்க
வல்லற்க ணாற்றறுப்பார் நட்பு.

Uḷḷam is the inner mind or heart. Here it is the seat of resolve that certain contemplated actions can cause to contract.

ஒருமைக்கட் டான்கற்ற கல்வி யொருவற்
கெழுமையு மேமாப் புடைத்து

ஏமாப்பு means protection or safeguard; here it names the lasting protection attributed to education across births as a religious claim.

மனநல நன்குடைய ராயினுஞ் சான்றோர்க்
கினநல மேமாப் புடைத்து

ஏமாப்பு (ēmāppu) means reinforcing security or added strength; sound association fortifies goodness already present.

இரவென்னு மேமாப்பி றோணி கரவென்னும்
பார்தாக்கப் பக்கு விடும்.

ஏமாப்பு is protection — the guard or cover that is on a thing to keep it from harm. In the line it stands with இல் immediately after it, ஏமாப்பு இல், a boat that has none, and Parimelazhagar reads the pair as சேமம் அற்ற, lacking safety. It names a guard placed on something rather than the strength of the thing itself, which is why Pope's 'fragile' moves it a little: a fragile boat is badly made, and this one is only uncovered. That difference is the whole reason a hidden no can break an asking that a plain one leaves standing.

ஐந்தவித்தான் ஆற்றல் அகல்விசும்பு ளார்கோமான்
இந்திரனே சாலுங் கரி

Witness or evidence. Here it is unrelated to the common modern word for charcoal; context makes Indra the proof.

அல்ல லருளாள்வார்க் கில்லை வளிவழங்கு
மல்லன்மா ஞாலங் கரி

Here கரி means witness or testimony, not an animal or charcoal. The verse calls the inhabitants of the vast world as witness to its claim, giving the ending public and emphatic weight.

இரப்பான் வெகுளாமை வேண்டும் நிரப்பிடும்பை
தானேயுஞ் சாலுங் கரி.

கரி (kari) — a witness. Not a proof worked out on paper, but something that stands there and settles a matter the way a witness does. Parimelazhagar reads it as சான்று and says outright that no second one is wanted: வேறு சான்று வேண்டா. What is put in the witness box here is neither a person nor an argument; it is the asker's own experience of want, which is why the answer arrives without anybody having to be questioned about anything. In Tamil today the word for this is சாட்சி or சான்று. கரி now brings charcoal to mind first, and a reader who takes that sense loses the line.

கொல்லாமை மேற்கொண் டொழுகுவான் வாழ்நாண்மேற்
செல்லா துயிருண்ணுங் கூற்று

கூற்று is Death personified. Its inability to approach expresses the exalted fruit attributed to a life governed by non-killing.

துப்புர வில்லார் துவரத் துறவாமை
யுப்பிற்குங் காடிக்குங் கூற்று.

கூற்று (kūṟṟu) — Yama, the god of death; the destroyer. Modern Tamil keeps the same spelling for something else entirely, a statement or an utterance, and the lexicon carries the two under separate headwords. The second line takes the harsher one. What it calls கூற்று, though, is not the people. The subject of the sentence is துறவாமை, their not renouncing, and Parimelazhagar keeps it there — அது செய்யாது ஒழிதல், the leaving off of doing it. The name of the destroyer is laid on an omission. Whose omission it is, and whose salt is at the other end of it, is a thirteenth-century reckoning, and it is set down on this page as his.

பண்டறியேன் கூற்றென் பதனை யினியறிந்தேன்
பெண்டகையாற் பேரமர்க் கட்டு.

Kūṟṟu is death itself, spoken of as a person who comes and takes a life. The speaker uses the heaviest word available, then says it turned up with a woman's face.

உதவி வரைத்தன்று உதவி உதவி
செயப்பட்டார் சால்பின் வரைத்து.

சால்பு means fullness of character — nobility, worth, the quality of a complete person. The verse says a repayment is bounded by the சால்பு of the receiver. English 'nobility' or 'worth' is close, but சால்பு carries the sense of a vessel filled to the brim: the more full the character, the more it overflows in return.

ஊனைக் குறித்த வுயிரெல்லா நாணென்னு
னன்மை குறித்தது சால்பு.

சால்பு (cālpu) — the fullness of a person's character, their worth complete. The root சால் means to be full or to suffice, so the word points at enough rather than at impressive: a filled measure, not a tall one. And a filled measure has to be resting on something.

இடமெல்லாங் கொள்ளாத் தகைத்தே யிடமில்லாக்
காலு மிரவொல்லாச் சால்பு.

சால்பு (cālpu) — the fullness in a person. சால் is an old word for being full, the way a vessel is full right up to the brim, and சான்றோர், the word for a complete grown person, comes from the same root. So சால்பு is not being clever and it is not being brave. It is being whole. The person it belongs to may have nothing at all; that is exactly who the word is about here. Their box is empty and they are not.

பெற்றாற் பெறின்பெறுவர் பெண்டிர் பெருஞ்சிறப்புப்
புத்தேளிர் வாழும் உலகு

சிறப்பு (here பெருஞ்சிறப்பு, peruñ-siṟappu, 'great siṟappu') means distinction, honour, the special excellence that sets something high above the ordinary. English 'glory' can sound like fame or spectacle; சிறப்பு is quieter and weightier — the earned eminence of real worth. The verse says faithfulness kept wholly wins a சிறப்பு ranked with the highest there is — an honour that comes not from rank or birth but purely from a steadfast heart.

இல்லாரை யெல்லாரு மெள்ளுவர் செல்வரை
யெல்லாருஞ் செய்வர் சிறப்பு.

சிறப்பு here means extra, deferential treatment given because someone appears wealthy. It is different from the equal respect every child deserves.

ஊணுடை யெச்ச முயிர்க்கெல்லாம் வேறல்ல
நாணுடைமை மாந்தர் சிறப்பு.

சிறப்பு (ciṟappu) — the distinction; the one thing that marks a person off from whoever is standing beside them. It is not honour conferred by anybody, not rank, and not a good name. It is what is still there once everything two people hold in common has been cleared away, and only one thing is left standing in that space.

அறனறிந்து வெஃகா அறிவுடையார்ச் சேரும்
திறனறிந்து ஆங்கே திரு.

திரு means sacred prosperity, fortune, the goddess Lakshmi — also the honorific 'holy/auspicious' (as in Tiru-kkuṟaḷ itself). Here திரு is wealth personified, seeking the uncovetous. English 'Fortune' or 'wealth' is close, but திரு carries a sacred glow — prosperity as something holy and gracious — so the verse pictures not mere money but auspicious abundance choosing to dwell with the un-grasping.

நல்லார்கட் பட்ட வறுமையி னின்னாதே
கல்லார்கட் பட்ட திரு

திரு means wealth, prosperity, or fortune. Here it is material abundance in the hands of someone whose lack of learning makes its use painful.

முயற்சி திருவினை யாக்கு முயற்றின்மை
யின்மை புகுத்தி விடும்.

திரு here is prosperity or wealth, personified elsewhere as the goddess of fortune. The point is stewardship that can grow resources—not a promise that effort always overrules injustice or chance.

துறந்தார்க்குத் துப்புரவு வேண்டி மறந்தார்கொன்
மற்றை யவர்க டவம்

Here துப்புரவு means the usable means of life supplied to renunciants—specifically food, medicine, and shelter in the commentary. It does not carry its common modern sense of cleanliness.

துறப்பார்மற் றுப்புர வில்லா ருறற்பால
வூட்டா கழியு மெனின்

துப்புரவு means the means or opportunity to enjoy what sustains life. Its absence points to deprivation.

துப்புர வில்லார் துவரத் துறவாமை
யுப்பிற்குங் காடிக்குங் கூற்று.

துப்புரவு (tuppuravu) — the things a person has to consume: food, oil, salt, whatever a house uses up. Parimelazhagar glosses it நுகரப்படும் பொருள்கள். The word is still in use today, but for cleanliness: a துப்புரவுத் தொழிலாளர் is a sanitation worker, and the lexicon lists the two senses under different roots. The first line names its people by this one lack and gives them nothing else: no place, no work, no character. It does not give them a sex either, since இல்லார் carries a plural ending that does not choose one. Somebody who is short of this does not thereby become a kind of person, and the word does not make them one.

அடற்றகையு மாற்றலு மில்லெனினுந் தானை
படைத்தகையாற் பாடு பெறும்.

தோற்றம் is what people see first. It can win attention or praise before anyone knows how well something works.

ஈவார்கண் ணென்னுண்டாந் தோற்ற மிரந்துகோள்
மேவா ரிலாஅக் கடை.

தோற்றம் (tōṟṟam) — from தோன்று, to appear, to come into view. It does not name a quality a person has; it names something showing up where it can be seen. What is asked in the first line is what தோற்றம் there is with those who give when nobody comes to ask, and Parimelazhagar narrows it to one thing, புகழ், renown, then answers his own question with யாதும் இல்லை, none at all. Pope and Aiyar both take his narrower word and write 'glory'. The wider Tamil word still matters, because what is denied is not that the giver is good. It is that there is anything of them on view.

கண்டா ருயிருண்ணுந் தோற்றத்தாற் பெண்டகைப்
பேதைக் கமர்த்தன கண்

'தோற்றம்' is the way something appears to the one looking. The verse uses it carefully: it does not claim the eyes are dangerous, only that they appear so to the person struck by them. The whole effect is placed on the side of the watcher.

நயன்ஈன்று நன்றி பயக்கும் பயன்ஈன்று
பண்பின் தலைப்பிரியாச் சொல்

நயன் (nayaṉ) here is justice or fitting accord with the social world. It is the present-life fruit paired with virtue for the life to come.

பயன்தூக்கார் செய்த உதவி நயன்தூக்கின்
நன்மை கடலின் பெரிது.

நயன் means goodness, grace, the gracious quality of an act. The verse says to weigh the நயன் of a return-blind help rather than its size. English 'merit' or 'goodness' is close, but நயன் carries a warmth — the gracefulness of a heart that gave without counting — that a flat word like 'value' loses.

நயனிலன் என்பது சொல்லும் பயனில
பாரித்து உரைக்கும் உரை.

நயன் means worth, grace, sound judgement, the quality of being good or just. The verse says empty speech proclaims a man நயன் இலன் — without நயன். English reaches for 'worth' or 'no righteous wisdom,' but நயன் blends moral grace and good sense in one word — so the charge is that idle talk exposes a lack not just of cleverness but of the whole inner quality that makes a person estimable.

நலக்குரியார் யாரெனின் நாமநீர் வைப்பின்
பிறர்க்குரியாள் தோள்தோயா தார்.

நலம் means good, goodness, well-being, blessing — every kind of benefit, material and moral, in this world and the next. Valluvar asks who is 'நலக்கு உரியார்,' worthy of நலம். English 'good things' or 'blessings' is close, but நலம் is a single warm word covering all welfare at once — so the faithful are cast as worthy of the entire field of human good, not one prize but all of it.

குணநலஞ் சான்றோர் நலனே பிறநல
மெந்நலத் துள்ளதூஉ மன்று.

நலம் is one of the most ordinary words in Tamil and it has never meant beauty. It means what is well — welfare, soundness, the good of a thing. It is the ordinary word for asking after a person’s health. That everyday sense is what the line is fighting over, because it appears four times in seven words and what is disputed is exactly how far it reaches. Parimelazhagar settles it by naming what falls outside: the good that comes through one's bodily parts, which he says lies outside the word altogether. Not a smaller portion of the word. Outside it.

குலஞ்சுடுங் கொள்கை பிழைப்பி னலஞ்சுடு
நாணின்மை நின்றக் கடை.

நலம் (nalam) — good; and more exactly, the good a person actually has in hand. The word looks singular, and Parimelazhagar says why it is not: 'நலம்' சாதி யொருமையாகலின், it is a generic singular, one form standing for a whole class. Then he lists the class — பிறப்பு, கல்வி, குணம், செயல், இனம், where you come from, what you have learnt, what you are like, what you do, who you belong with. At your age that is not one score and not one reputation. It is the whole set: what you get handed, what you get asked to do, and whether the thing you are genuinely good at is believed to be yours.

தோன்றிற் புகழொடு தோன்றுக அஃதிலார்
தோன்றலிற் றோன்றாமை நன்று

நன்று means ‘better’ or ‘good’ at the end of the Kural's severe comparison. It intensifies the demand for worthy qualities; it must not be used to decide which children deserve life or respect.

அவிசொரிந் தாயிரம் வேட்டலி னொன்ற
னுயிர்செகுத் துண்ணாமை நன்று

நன்று means ‘better’ in this comparison. It is an explicit ethical ranking: abstaining from flesh obtained through one taken life is superior to the magnitude of a thousand sacrificial rites.

நட்டார் குறைமுடியார் நன்றாற்றார் நன்னுதலாட்
பெட்டாங் கொழுகு பவர்.

Naṉṟu here is good or virtuous action, not the adverb ‘well.’ The recycling scene is deliberately separate from helping a particular friend: it shows a small ethical duty that benefits the shared classroom.

அல்லவை தேய அறம்பெருகும் நல்லவை
நாடி இனிய சொலின்

நாடி (nāṭi) means seeking, examining, or deliberately selecting. The verse does not praise automatic niceness; it asks the speaker to search for words whose content benefits another.

நல்லாற்றா னாடி யருளாள்க பல்லாற்றான்
றேரினு மஃதே துணை

நாடி means having examined or sought carefully. It prevents compassion from becoming impulsive certainty: the reader must investigate by a good method before acting under compassion.

நோய்நாடி நோய்முத னாடி யதுதணிக்கும்
வாய்நாடி வாய்ப்பச் செயல்.

நாடி is the participle of a verb meaning to go after something and settle it. One short sentence uses it three times over: once on the illness, once on what produced the illness, once on the means that will bring it down. English renderings almost always fold the three into a single act of examining, since English dislikes repeating a verb so close to itself. What the repetition does is refuse to let the three searches blur together. Each has to finish before the next may begin, and that refusal is the instruction.

நிலையின் திரியாது அடங்கியான் தோற்றம்
மலையினும் மாணப் பெரிது.

நிலை means standing, station, settled position — both one's place in life and one's steadiness in it. 'Not swerving from his நிலை' fuses the two: keeping your post and keeping your poise. English needs 'station' and 'steadiness' as separate words; நிலை holds them as one, which is the verse's whole point — greatness is staying both in place and unmoved.

கொளற்கரிதாய்க் கொண்டகூழ்த் தாகி யகத்தார்
நிலைக்கெளிதா நீர தரண்.

நிலை here is the defended battle position that those inside must maintain. It is not simply emotional steadiness; the question is whether the fort makes that military station practicable.

உழவினார் கைம்மடங்கி னில்லை விழைவதூஉம்
விட்டேமென் பார்க்கு நிலை.

நிலை (nilai) — standing, in the sense of continuing to stand where you said you stood. Parimelazhagar reads it as நிற்றல் and puts it somewhere exact: அவ்வறத்தின்கண், inside that renunciation. So what is denied is not comfort and not reputation but the footing of a stated position. English reaches for place — Pope has it that no place is found — and place is close, but நிலை is less a spot than a footing. It can go while the person is still standing in exactly the same room.

சிறைகாக்கும் காப்பெவன் செய்யும் மகளிர்
நிறைகாக்கும் காப்பே தலை

நிறை means fullness, completeness — here, inner self-possession: a heart so settled and full in itself that it holds steadily to its own path. Parimelazhagar glosses it as keeping the mind fixed on the right way. English 'continence' or 'self-restraint' sounds like suppression; நிறை is the opposite — not a clamping-down but a fullness, the quiet completeness from which steadiness flows naturally. The verse calls this inner fullness the only guard worth the name.

நிறையுடைமை நீங்காமை வேண்டின் பொறையுடைமை
போற்றி ஒழுகப் படும்

"Fullness, completeness — the self-possession of a whole character." Not merely honesty; the sense of a person who is entire, undivided, not pulled off-center under pressure. The verse says this fullness is not self-sustaining: it endures only while patience keeps watch over it.

நிறையரியர் மன்னளிய ரென்னாது காம
மறையிறந்து மன்று படும்.

Niṟai is the settled fullness of a mind that holds itself in — not shyness, not rule-following, but a self-command a person has actually earned. The couplet's force comes from admitting the niṟai is real. Love does not defeat it in an argument; it simply never asks it.

செயற்பால தோரும் அறனே ஒருவற்கு
உயற்பால தோரும் பழி

பழி means 'blame, reproach, disgrace.' Valluvar defines what to avoid not as abstract 'sin' but as பழி — that which rightly draws reproach. English 'blame' sounds like other people's opinion; பழி is weightier, the deserved stain on conduct that the world and your own conscience register together. Parimelazhagar glosses it as 'பழிக்கப்படுவது,' that which gets blamed. It makes a usable test: the avoidable is what cannot stand being named openly — a compass anyone can carry.

பொறியின்மை யார்க்கும் பழியன் றறிவறிந்
தாள்வினை யின்மை பழி.

பழி is moral blame, not mere disappointment or an unfavourable outcome. Here it attaches only to informed, feasible inaction—not to lack of luck, wealth, health, access, or power.

இரக்க விரத்தக்கார்க் காணிற் கரப்பி
னவர்பழி தம்பழி யன்று.

பழி (paḻi) — blame; the reproach that settles on a person in the eyes of the people around them. It is not a feeling and it is not a punishment. Pope gives it as 'sin', which pulls it towards religion, and Aiyar as 'fault', which is nearer. The word stands twice in the same line, once on each side — அவர் பழி, theirs, and தம் பழி, the askers' own. Parimelazhagar spells the move out: அவர்க்குப் பழியாவதல்லது தமக்குப் பழியாகாமையான், it becomes blame for them and does not become blame for the ones who asked. So blame is not being taken out of the situation. All that is being decided is whose it is.

குடியென்னும் குன்றா விளக்கம் மடியென்னும்
மாசூர மாய்ந்து கெடும்.

மடி is not every pause. Here it is avoidable slackness that is allowed to settle over a responsibility until a continuing source of household distinction loses its light.

மடியுளாண் மாமுகடி யென்ப மடியிலான்
றாளுளா டாமரையி னாள்

மடி here is avoidable slackness allowed to become a settled pattern after real barriers are addressed. It is not disability, depression, exhaustion, rest, poverty, or one missed task.

குடிசெய்வார்க் கில்லை பருவ மடிசெய்து
மானங் கருதக் கெடும்.

மடி (maṭi) — slackness, the letting go of the hand. It is not tiredness and it is not rest. Parimelazhagar shows how it arrives: மடியினைச் செய்துகொண்டு, taking slackness up, and he says where the eyes are while it happens — காலத்தை நோக்கி, on the time rather than on the job. So it is a slowness that arrives with a reason attached. That reason is exactly what hides it from the person doing it. From the inside it never sounds like sloth; it sounds like good sense.

அறத்தினூஉங்கு ஆக்கமும் இல்லை அதனை
மறத்தலின் ஊங்கில்லை கேடு

மறத்தல் means 'forgetting.' Valluvar does not say the great loss comes from rejecting or attacking virtue — he says it comes from மறத்தல், simply letting it slip from mind. English 'forgetting' sounds passive and blameless; here it carries weight, because Parimelazhagar reads the ruin as arising from மயக்கம் (heedless confusion). The warning is about inattention, the most ordinary way good is lost.

பொறுத்தல் இறப்பினை என்றும் அதனை
மறத்தல் அதனினும் நன்று

"Forgetting — letting a thing fall out of memory." Not denial or suppression, which keep the wrong present by force of will. மறத்தல் is the natural emptying: the wrong simply no longer held. Valluvar places it above பொறுத்தல் (forgiving), because forgiving still carries what forgetting has finally set down.

மறத்தல் வெகுளியை யார்மாட்டுந் தீய
பிறத்த லதனான் வரும்

மறத்தல் literally means ‘forgetting’ or ‘letting cease from mind.’ Here it asks for the relinquishing of anger, not the erasure of evidence, memory, or a just response.

மாறுபா டில்லாத வுண்டி மறுத்துண்ணி
னூறுபா டில்லை யுயிர்க்கு.

மறு is the root for refusing, for declining what is being offered. It stands here not as a separate act but as the manner of the eating itself, so that one movement takes and declines at the same time. That is why the commentary can fix the amount twice over — not by what the mind asks for, and at the level where nothing comes to harm. English has to choose between two verbs, and it usually keeps only the taking.

குடிப்பிறந்தார் கண்விளங்குங் குற்றம் விசும்பின்
மதிக்கண் மறுப்போ லுயர்ந்து.

மறு is not the general word for a stain — that word appears in the line just before this one. மறு is a mark on a surface, and it is the standard Tamil word for the mark on the moon. The comparison is therefore exact rather than decorative: the mark is not bigger than marks elsewhere, the surface is simply one that everybody is looking at, and Parimelazhagar makes the point explicit by adding that the thing may be small. The variable is உயர்ந்து, raised. Height, not magnitude.

அறுவாய் நிறைந்த வவிர்மதிக்குப் போல
மறுவுண்டோ மாதர் முகத்து.

A stain, spot or blemish on a surface — here the dark patch on the moon's face. The word carries the sense of something that mars an otherwise whole thing, which is why the question 'மறு உண்டோ' lands as an argument and not merely as a compliment.

முறைசெய்து காப்பாற்றும் மன்னவன் மக்கட்
கிறையென்று வைக்கப் படும்

முறை — Muṟai means proper order, due procedure, or justice; here the ruler administers it before protecting people.

ஓர்ந்துகண் ணோடா திறைபுரிந் தியார்மாட்டுந்
தேர்ந்துசெய் வஃதே முறை.

The word முறை names the right order and proper course of justice. It gathers several restraints into one idea: investigate first, refuse personal favor, seek informed guidance, and act only to the measured extent.

இறைகாக்கும் வையக மெல்லா மவனை
முறைகாக்கும் முட்டாச் செயின்.

முறை means just order: the fair, maintained way in which authority is exercised. Here it protects the ruler only when he keeps carrying it out without allowing obstruction to break it.

வாய்மை யெனப்படுவ தியாதெனின் யாதொன்றுந்
தீமை யிலாத சொலல்

Here வாய்மை means truthful speech that causes no needless harm to another life; accuracy and humane delivery belong together.

தூஉய்மை யென்ப தவாவின்மை மற்றது
வாஅய்மை வேண்ட வரும்

வாய்மை is truth or reality pursued as a discipline, broader than merely making a truthful statement.

தூய்மை துணைமை துணிவுடைமை யிம்மூன்றின்
வாய்மை வழியுரைப்பான் பண்பு.

வாய்மை is truthfulness expressed in speech. Here it keeps the envoy aligned with the entrusted substance while also exposing a false or unlawful mandate.

இதனை யிதனா லிவன்முடிக்கு மென்றாய்ந்
ததனை யவன்கண் விடல்.

விடல் (viṭal) means ‘to leave’ or ‘to entrust.’ Here it does not mean neglecting the work; it means placing the whole responsibility with the examined person instead of continually taking pieces of it back.

அருளொடு மன்பொடும் வாரார் பொருளாக்கம்
புல்லார் புரள விடல்.

விடல் means letting the revenue go. The required response is a visible relinquishment, not private disapproval while keeping the money.

இன்றி யமையாச் சிறப்பின வாயினுங்
குன்ற வருப விடல்.

விடல் is built on விடு, to release or let go — the word for loosening a hold, and also for sending something away. It is not a word of refusal. Refusing belongs to things you have not taken up, and this one belongs to what is already in your hand. That fits what the line has just conceded: the act carries a distinction without which, Parimelazhagar says, one is not complete. So the thing being released is not a temptation but a necessity, and the whole weight of the line rests on the single word ஆயினும், even so.

வினைத்திட்ப மென்ப தொருவன் மனத்திட்ப
மற்றைய வெல்லாம் பிற.

வினைத்திட்பம் — Firmness in action is visible follow-through grounded in a settled mind, including the ability to learn, ask for help, and revise responsibly.

வீறெய்தி மாண்டார் வினைத்திட்பம் வேந்தன்க
னூறெய்தி யுள்ளப் படும்.

வினைத்திட்பம் — Here action-firmness belongs to an accomplished adviser whose work reaches governing acceptance and wider regard.

எனைத்திட்ப மெய்தியக் கண்ணும் வினைத்திட்பம்
வேண்டாரை வேண்டா துலகு.

வினைத்திட்பம் is steadfast reliability in carrying an undertaking through. Here it is an indispensable qualification for ministerial responsibility, not a measure of intrinsic human value.

கொலைமேற் கொண்டாரிற் கொடிதே யலைமேற்கொண்
டல்லவை செய்தொழுகும் வேந்து.

வேந்து means the king who carries public authority. Here the word sharpens responsibility: the person expected to protect the population instead adopts their harassment as a governing practice.

யாண்டுச்சென் றியாண்டு முளராகார் வெந்துப்பின்
வேந்து செறப்பட்ட வர்.

Vēntu means a king or sovereign, not a generic boss or respected person. The direct claim concerns an ancient ruler with fierce coercive reach pursuing another ruler; modern situations are analogies only where concentrated power follows a target across places.

ஏந்திய கொள்கையார் சீறி னிடைமுரிந்து
வேந்தனும் வேந்து கெடும்.

Vēntu means kingship or the office of king in this position, not the king as a person. The preceding vēntaṉum names even the king; this second word names what he loses. That repetition lets the sentence say that even the office-holder can be separated from the office midway.

பகைபாவம் அச்சம் பழியென நான்கும்
இகவாவாம் இல்லிறப்பான் கண்.

அச்சம் means fear, dread. It is one of Valluvar's four inseparable evils, and the most psychologically exact: the wrongdoer lives in constant fear of being found out. English 'fear' is plain, but in this list அச்சம் names the specific, gnawing dread of exposure — the way a hidden wrong turns ordinary life into a state of perpetual looking-over-the-shoulder.

அச்சமே கீழ்கள தாசார மெச்ச
மவாவுண்டே லுண்டாஞ் சிறிது.

அச்சம் (accam) — fear. A completely ordinary word, in daily use, and one of the four qualities classical Tamil lists for women in a much-quoted formula, which is worth knowing about and setting aside: nothing of that is in play here. What matters is the fear Parimelazhagar specifies — அரசனான் ஏதம் வரும் என்று அஞ்சும் அச்சம், fear that harm will come from the king. Punishment by an authority that can reach you. Not conscience, not shame, not fear of hurting somebody. Once you know which fear it is, the line becomes measurable: you can find the exact edge of an authority's reach, and see what happens just past it.

அணங்குகொ லாய்மயில் கொல்லோ கனங்குழை
மாதர்கொன் மாலுமென் னெஞ்சு.

A divine female power — one that awes and unsettles rather than merely charms. Choosing this word as the first guess shows that the looker's first instinct is not desire but something closer to fear.

நோக்கினா ணோக்கெதிர் நோக்குத றாக்கணங்கு
தானைக்கொண் டன்ன துடைத்து.

A deity whose mere presence afflicts and wounds. The word is not a compliment about looks; it names a force that acts on whoever comes near it. Kural 1082 sets this word beside the word for an army precisely because the speaker feels outnumbered by a single glance.

அமிழ்தினு மாற்ற வினிதேதம் மக்கள்
சிறுகை யளாவிய கூழ்

அமிழ்து (amizhdu / amṛta) is the nectar of immortality, the food of the gods — the very byword for the sweetest thing imaginable. English has no single word with its mythic weight; 'ambrosia' comes closest. The verse's power is to say that even அமிழ்து is surpassed — by something utterly ordinary, a plain meal a child's small hand has played in. It sets the highest sweetness there is against a homely family moment, and lets the moment win.

அங்கணத்து ளுக்க வமிழ்தற்றாற் றங்கணத்த
ரல்லார்முற் கோட்டி கொளல்.

அமிழ்து is nectar—something precious and life-giving. Its appearance in an unclean yard shows that the speech retains inherent worth even while the chosen setting destroys its practical benefit.

கடுமொழியுங் கையிகந்த தண்டமும் வேந்த
னடுமுரண் டேய்க்கு மரம்.

அரம் is a metal file that wears iron down by friction. The image says harsh speech and excessive punishment grind away the ruler's formidable power, rather than strengthening it.

அரம்போலுங் கூர்மைய ரேனு மரம்போல்வர்
மக்கட்பண் பில்லா தவர்.

அரம் is the file — a bar of metal with a rasping face, kept in a drawer in most houses and still called that in any workshop in Tamil Nadu. It is worth separating carefully from அறம், virtue, which differs by the letter in the middle and would invert the whole line. What the tool contributes is a very exact idea of sharpness, and three things about it are worth holding. It is sharp along its entire surface, so there is nowhere on it that is not an edge. It is made for a single job. And it works by removal: a file improves a thing by taking material off it, which is a fair description of a certain kind of very able person and their effect on a room. The commentator adds no gloss to it at all. He simply repeats the comparison, which is usually a sign that he found the image exact enough to leave alone.

பொருணீங்கிப் பொச்சாந்தா ரென்ப ரருணீங்கி
யல்லவை செய்தொழுகு வார்

The things that ought not be done—here, cruelties to living beings that should be avoided. It is more specific than merely unpopular behaviour and does not make every disagreement a moral offence.

அறனிழுக்கா தல்லவை நீக்கி மறனிழுக்கா
மான முடைய தரசு

அல்லவை means actions that are not virtuous or right, the wrongs that responsible authority must remove.

கூத்தாட்டவைக் குழாத் தற்றே பெருஞ்செல்வம்
போக்கு மதுவிளிந் தற்று

அவை here is the hall or assembly where a performance is watched. It gives the comparison a visible place that can fill and empty.

அவை யறிந்தாராய்ந்து சொல்லுக சொல்லின்
றொகையறிந்த தூய்மை யவர்.

அவை names assembly—the particular group whose knowledge and purpose must shape the speech. For an adult speaker, it requires studying the group's purpose and prior knowledge before arranging a consequential explanation.

அழுக்காறு அவாவெகுளி இன்னாச்சொல் நான்கும்
இழுக்கா இயன்றது அறம்

அழுக்காறு means 'envy' — but the Tamil is more vivid than the English. Its root sense is of something soiled or unclean (அழுக்கு), so அழுக்காறு is envy as a stain on the mind, a foulness that spoils it from within. English 'envy' names a feeling; அழுக்காறு names a defilement. The verse lists it first of the four faults, and Parimelazhagar treats it as the resentment of another's good fortune — the soil from which the other three grow.

ஒழுக்காறாக் கொள்க ஒருவன்தன் நெஞ்சத்து
அழுக்காறு இலாத இயல்பு.

அழுக்காறு means envy, the grudging that cannot bear another's good (from அழுக்கு, dirt or stain — envy as a soiling of the heart). English 'envy' is close, but அழுக்காறு carries the sense of an inner stain, a dirtiness in the mind itself — which is why Valluvar treats freedom from it not as politeness but as cleanliness of character, a discipline to keep.

உளபோன் முகத்தெவன் செய்யு மளவினாற்
கண்ணோட்ட மில்லாத கண்.

Aḷavu is fitting measure and boundary; it guides care so that it helps without undoing responsibility.

உற்றா னளவும் பிணியளவுங் காலமுங்
கற்றான் கருதிச் செயல்.

அளவு here is a reading taken on the spot rather than a figure brought in from before. It falls twice in a single breath here, onto two different things, and the two measurements are not even of the same kind. A person's அளவு is how much he can bear just now; a trouble's அளவு is how far it has already travelled. English has to split them into condition and extent, and at the moment it splits them, the fact that this is one act of measuring, done by one pair of eyes at one time, quietly goes.

குற்றமே காக்க பொருளாக குற்றமே
யற்றந் தரூஉம் பகை

அற்றம் means ruin, ending, or destructive loss. One's own fault can produce that outcome like an enemy, though not every mistake is catastrophic.

அற்ற மறைக்கும் பெருமை சிறுமைதான்
குற்றமே கூறி விடும்.

அற்றம் sits on அறு, the verb for being cut through, severed, brought to an end. So it does not name anything a person did — it names where they stop. The lexicon gives it want, poverty, a weak point and a secret all at once, and those are not four senses but one shape viewed from four sides: somewhere a person has no more. Parimelazhagar calls the covered thing அவமானம், the disgrace attaching to a person, and that gloss is what sets the limit on the covering. A shortfall belongs to whoever has it. A risk belongs to whoever it lands on, and the two do not substitute for each other.

அறத்தாறு இதுவென வேண்டா சிவிகை
பொறுத்தானோடு ஊர்ந்தான் இடை

அறத்தாறு joins அறம் (virtue) with ஆறு, which means both 'way/path' and 'result/fruit.' So the word holds a double sense: the way of virtue and what comes of it. English needs a whole phrase — 'the outcome of righteousness' — for what this one compound carries. Parimelazhagar reads it here as the 'fruit' (பயன்), since the verse says you need not explain it: the difference between the litter-borne and the litter-bearer shows the result of அறம் to the plain eye.

அறத்தாற்றின் இல்வாழ்க்கை ஆற்றின் புறத்தாற்றில்
போஒய்ப் பெறுவது எவன்

அறத்தாறு joins அறம் (virtue) and ஆறு (way, path, river-course): 'the path of virtue,' the channel along which right living runs. The verse says one who keeps household life on the aṟattāṟu gains nothing by going off to a 'puṟattāṟu,' an outside path. English 'the way of virtue' is close, but ஆறு also means a watercourse — a path already cut, ready to flow along — so அறத்தாறு pictures virtue not as a destination to seek but as a course already laid down right where you live.

சிறப்பீனும் செல்வமும் ஈனும் அறத்தினூஉங்கு
ஆக்கம் எவனோ உயிர்க்கு

அறம் is the word the whole chapter turns on. English 'virtue' or 'righteousness' can sound like rule-following or piety; அறம் is broader and warmer — the right way of living that holds a life and a society together, the conduct that yields both inner release and outer good. Parimelazhagar reads the verse as saying அறம் gives 'சிறப்பு' (release, the highest distinction) and 'செல்வம்' (prosperity) at once — so it is not one good among many but the ground of all gain.

பிறர்நாணத் தக்கது தானாணா னாயி
னறநாணத் தக்க துடைத்து.

அறம் (aṟam) — virtue, right conduct, what a person is bound to do. The striking move is grammatical: அறம் is made the subject that shrinks, and Parimelazhagar reads that shrinking as departure, virtue leaving the man rather than staying and disapproving. That is why the loss described is not reputation. It is the good going out of what he was doing.

அனிச்சப்பூக் கால்களையாள் பெய்தா ணுசுப்பிற்கு
நல்ல படாஅ பறை.

The anicham, the flower classical Tamil poets treat as the softest thing there is — so delicate it is said to wither at a mere smell. In this chapter it is the standard of softness the beloved is said to exceed.

அனிச்சமு மன்னத்தின் றூவியு மாத
ரடிக்கு நெருஞ்சிப் பழம்.

The anicham, the flower Tamil poetry treats as the standard of softness, said to wither at nothing more than being smelled. The couplet takes the world's softest thing and still finds it too rough.

வன்கண் குடிகாத்தல் கற்றறித லாள்வினையோ
டைந்துடன் மாண்ட தமைச்சு.

ஆள்வினை means energetic, governing effort—the willingness to take responsibility and keep useful action going. Here it belongs with firmness, protection, and learned judgement.

ஆள்வினையு மான்ற வறிவு மெனவிரண்டி
னீள்வினையா னீளுங் குடி.

ஆள்வினை (āḷviṉai) — exertion: work taken in hand and carried through. ஆள் means to take a thing up and manage it, and வினை is the act, so read that way the compound names the doing rather than the doer. A gendered reading also exists and it is worth meeting head-on, because a reader will: the University of Madras Tamil Lexicon heads this word 'Manly effort, enterprise', Pope writes 'The manly act' and Aiyar 'Manly exertion'. What settles it here is the commentary. Parimelazhagar glosses it with one plain noun, முயற்சி, effort — the same word the Lexicon gives as its own Tamil equivalent — and the sentence here names no actor at all, only the act. What the compound carries and a one-word gloss loses is deliberateness: not activity that happens to a person, but work they have picked up.

அழிவி னவைநீக்கி யாறுய்த் தழிவின்க
ணல்ல லுழப்பதா நட்பு.

Āṟu is the good path toward which a friend actively guides another after averting ruin.

ஒன்றெய்தி நூறிழக்குஞ் சூதர்க்கு முண்டாங்கொ
னன்றெய்தி வாழ்வதோ ராறு.

ஆறு here is not the number six and not a river. In classical Tamil it means a way — a road, a course, a means of getting somewhere. Modern Tamil has largely handed that job to வழி, which is why the sense slips past a present-day reader. It matters because the question is not the abstract one, whether a good life is possible. It is whether a road exists. Roads are things you can stand at the end of and find shut.

இகலென்ப வெல்லா வுயிர்க்கும் பகலென்னும்
பண்பின்மை பாரிக்கு நோய்.

Ikal is cultivated hostility that turns difference into ongoing opposition and prevents fellowship; it is not dissent, accountability, or safe distance.

மிகன்மேவன் மெய்ப்பொருள் காண ரிகன்மேவ
லின்னா வறிவி னவர்.

Ikal means sustained divisive hostility, not ordinary disagreement.

ஆற்றாரு மாற்றி யடுப விடனறிந்து
போற்றார்கட் போற்றிச் செயின்

With இடனறிந்து (iṭaṉaṟintu), one understands which place fits the action. Joined with self-protection and action, place becomes part of disciplined strategy rather than luck.

கடனறிந்து காலங் கருதி யிடனறிந்
தெண்ணி யுரைப்பான் றலை.

இடனறிந்து means knowing the fitting place for the message. For adults, place includes the physical room and, by analogy, the channel, privacy, record, and access conditions around it.

விழித்தகண் வேல்கொண் டெறிய வழித்திமைப்பி
னொட்டன்றோ வன்க ணவர்க்கு.

இமைப்பின் means ‘if the eye blinks.’ The ending -iṉ makes a condition; the ancient warrior then judges that tiny event as retreat.

கண்ணுள்ளிற் போகா ரிமைப்பிற் பருவரார்
நுண்ணியரெங் காத லவர்.

'If (I) blink.' A blink is the smallest possible interruption — the one break in seeing that nobody can avoid. The couplet uses it to measure how little disturbs what is truly settled inside.

இயல்பினான் இல்வாழ்க்கை வாழ்பவன் என்பான்
முயல்வாருள் எல்லாம் தலை

இயல்பு means one's nature, the natural and proper way of being — what is fitting and unforced for a thing to be. The verse praises the one who lives household life iyalbināṉ, 'in its natural way,' and ranks him first among all seekers. English 'naturally' can suggest mere ease; இயல்பு is richer — it means living true to the right nature of the thing, neither straining beyond it nor falling short, the unforced rightness that is harder to reach than any dramatic feat.

இயல்பாகு நோன்பிற்கொன் றின்மை யுடைமை
மயலாகு மற்றும் பெயர்த்து

இயல்பு: அற்றமை is the state of being without possession. Here it is presented as the natural ground on which the chosen discipline stands.

சினமென்னுஞ் சேர்ந்தாரைக் கொல்லி யினமென்னு
மேமப் புணையைச் சுடும்

இனம் here means one’s own circle or kin. It reaches beyond a single relative to the people joined to someone as a source of belonging and support.

இனத்தாற்றி யெண்ணாத வேந்தன் சினத்தாற்றிச்
சீறிற் சிறுகுந் திரு.

இனம் here is the ruler's ministerial circle, not ethnicity or family lineage. The phrase requires him to place the matter before that circle and deliberate with them, rather than merely delegating and later blaming them.

கான முயலெய்த வம்பினில் யானை
பிழைத்தவே லேந்த லினிது.

இனிது means preferable or more worthy in this comparison. It ranks the ambitious missed attempt above an easy hit; it does not call recklessness pleasant.

களித்தொறுங் கள்ளுண்டல் வேட்டற்றாற் காமம்
வெளிப்படுந் தோறு மினிது.

It is sweet. Not merely bearable, not merely acceptable — pleasant to the taste. The couplet could have said the talk does no harm, or that she has learned to live with it. It says instead that it is sweet, and puts that word at the very end of the second line, where nothing can soften it. The whole force of the verse is in refusing the word people expect there, which is shame.

மற்றுந் தொடர்ப்பா டெவன்கொல் பிறப்பறுக்க
லுற்றார்க் குடம்பு மிகை

உடம்பு: மற்றும் தொடர்ப்பாடு எவன் asks what connection to outside things could still remain. It is a forceful question after the body itself has been called excess.

இடும்பைக்கே கொள்கலங் கொல்லோ குடும்பத்தைக்
குற்ற மறைப்பா னுடம்பு.

உடம்பு (uṭampu) — the body. Of all the words here it is the plainest, and it arrives last, with everything said before it leaning on it. The question being asked is about a body: when one person keeps trouble away from everyone at home, where does the trouble go? Into that body — into its sleep, its hunger, its aching hands. உடம்பு is still the ordinary Tamil word a child would use, so nothing here has to be translated for one.

நட்பிற்குறுப்புக் கெழுதகைமை மற்றதற்
குப்பாதல் சான்றோர் கடன்.

Uppu is “salt,” the metaphor for gracious reception that gives savour to familiar liberty without replacing it.

துப்புர வில்லார் துவரத் துறவாமை
யுப்பிற்குங் காடிக்குங் கூற்று.

உப்பு (uppu) — salt. It is the cheapest thing in any kitchen, which is precisely why the line names it. Standing beside it is காடி, the sour water rice has been left in, which is the other thing nobody bothers to count. Land could have been named, or gold, and these two were named instead. What the line is really watching shows in that choice: not what a house owns, but the smallest things that pass between houses, and how quickly a hard year shows up in them.

அழுக்காறு உடையான்கண் ஆக்கம்போன்று இல்லை
ஒழுக்கம் இலான்கண் உயர்வு.

உயர்வு (uyarvu) is elevation or true greatness. Here it is denied where conduct is absent, even if external rank appears high.

பெருக்கத்து வேண்டும் பணிதல் சிறிய
சுருக்கத்து வேண்டு முயர்வு.

உயர்வு is height — rising, elevation, the state of being high. Modern Tamil still uses it for prices climbing and for promotions. Here it is what is required of a person whose means have shrunk. And the old commentator does something careful with it: he glosses it as not-bowing. Not standing tall, not thinking well of yourself, not answering back. Only the withholding of the bend that everyone has quietly begun to expect from you. That is a narrower instruction than the word looks, and it is the harder half of the two.

அன்பின் வழியது உயிர்நிலை அஃதிலார்க்கு
என்புதோல் போர்த்த உடம்பு

உயிர்நிலை (uyirnilai) joins உயிர், life or living soul, with நிலை, state or abiding condition. Here it is life established “in the way of love”—a morally full embodied life in the Kural's household framework.

உண்ணாமை யுள்ள துயிர்நிலை யூனுண்ண
வண்ணாத்தல் செய்யா தளறு

உயிர்நிலை means the state or continuance of embodied life. The first line connects that life with not eating flesh; it is an ethical teaching here, not a promise that a particular diet prevents every illness.

பிறர்பழியுந் தம்பழியு நாணுவர் நாணுக்
குறைபதி யென்னு முலகு.

உலகு (ulaku) — the world, and here that means the people in it. Not the earth and not the sky: the neighbours, the class, the caretaker at the tap, everyone who watches and eventually says something out loud. உலகு is the one doing the naming, which is exactly why the name cannot be given to yourself.

குற்ற மிலனாய்க் குடிசெய்து வாழ்வானைச்
சுற்றமாச் சுற்று முலகு.

உலகு (ulaku) — the world. Parimelazhagar reads it as உலகத்தார், the people of the world, so what closes round the person is not the earth but everybody: the lane, the town, people with no reason at all to know them. For a child the size of the word is the point — உலகு is not your house and not your class, it is all the rest, and all the rest is what comes.

அறிவிலா னெஞ்சுவந் தீதல் பிறிதியாது
மில்லை பெறுவான் றவம்.

Uvantu means giving from the donor’s glad, unforced willingness; in this old ironic framing, an unusually timely gift feels like the receiver’s good action returning.

உவந்துறைவ ருள்ளத்து ளென்று மிகந்துறைவ
ரேதில ரென்னுமிவ் வூர்.

Gladly, with delight. The word does more work than it seems: it is not enough that he stays in her heart, he stays there happily. A memory can be heavy; this presence is not. The whole reply to the town rests on this one word.

உள்ளத்தாற் பொய்யா தொழுகி னுலகத்தா
ருள்ளத்து ளெல்லா முளன்

உள்ளத்தால் means living so that the heart conceals no falsehood; inward honesty becomes dependable conduct seen by others.

உள்ளிய தெல்லா முடனெய்து முள்ளத்தா
ளுள்ளான் வெகுளி யெனின்

உள்ளத்தால் means ‘by or within the mind.’ It locates the discipline inwardly: the practitioner does not deliberately hold anger in the very mind directed toward spiritual attainment.

உள்ளிய தெல்லா முடனெய்து முள்ளத்தா
ளுள்ளான் வெகுளி யெனின்

உள்ளியது means ‘what was contemplated or intended.’ In this setting it refers to the spiritual attainments held as the aim of disciplined practice, not every passing wish.

உள்ளிய தெய்த லெளிதுமன் மற்றுந்தா
னுள்ளிய துள்ளப் பெறின்.

The noun உள்ளியது (uḷḷiyatu) identifies what the ruler intended to attain. Its return in the condition shows that this very purpose—not a convenient substitute—must keep guiding later choices.

புறத்துறுப் பெல்லாம் எவன்செய்யும் யாக்கை
அகத்துறுப் பன்பி லவர்க்கு

உறுப்பு (uṟuppu) is a functioning part, member, limb, or organ. In the joined forms புறத்துறுப்பு and அகத்துறுப்பு, the commentary contrasts external household supports with love as the inward part that gives them ethical use.

உறுப்பமைந் தூறஞ்சா வெல்படை வேந்தன்
வெறுக்கையு ளெல்லாந் தலை.

உறுப்பு is one necessary arm of a complete force. The ancient commentary counts elephants, chariots, cavalry, and infantry; the whole loses capability when a required arm is absent.

அஞ்சாமை யீகையறி வூக்க மிந்நான்கு
மெஞ்சாமை வேந்தற் கியல்பு

ஊக்கம் — Ūkkam means energetic initiative or determined effort; it is the readiness to act, not permission to rush past safety.

உடைய ரெனப்படுவ தூக்கமஃ தில்லா
ருடைய துடையரோ மற்று.

ஊக்கம் is energetic inward resolve—the active purpose by which a person directs what is available. Here it earns the rhetoric of true possession because it gives command and durability, not because property or basic material security are unreal.

ஊதிய மென்ப தொருவற்குப் பேதையார்
கேண்மை யொரீஇ விடல்.

Ūtiyam means gain, benefit, or profit. The striking claim is that release from a persistently harmful friendship can count as something gained, not merely something lost.

பேதைமை யென்பதொன் றியாதெனி னேதங்கொண்
டூதியம் போக விடல்.

Ūtiyam is the benefit, gain, or advancement that the person allows to be lost while choosing what harms them.

சுவைஒளி ஊறுஓசை நாற்றமென் றைந்தின்
வகைதெரிவான் கட்டே யுலகு

Tactile quality—what is known through contact or touch. In this philosophical list it is broader than moisture or seepage.

உறுப்பமைந் தூறஞ்சா வெல்படை வேந்தன்
வெறுக்கையு ளெல்லாந் தலை.

ஊறு is real bodily harm or injury in battle. Not shrinking from it does not erase fear, trauma, protection, or the value of the person exposed.

ஏரினு நன்றா மெருவிடுதல் கட்டபி
னீரினு நன்றதன் காப்பு.

எரு (eru) — manure: dung and leaf mould carted onto a field after it has been ploughed. It is the least impressive thing named here and the first thing ranked above the plough. Parimelazhagar's word for the act is எருப்பெய்தல், pouring it on. Nothing about எரு replaces the ploughing — it goes onto ploughed ground, and it goes there second. That is the whole force of where it stands: the later, smaller, dirtier job doing more for the crop than the one that took the animals and the day.

ஊரவர் கௌவை எருவாக வன்னைசொன்
னீராக நீளுமிந் நோய்.

Eru is manure: the dung and rotted matter a farmer spreads at the root of a crop. It is the least pleasant thing in the field, and it is what makes the field yield. Choosing eru for gossip is the whole couplet in one word. The talk is foul, and it is feeding something.

வசையென்ப வையத்தார்க் கெல்லா மிசையென்னு
மெச்சம் பெறாஅ விடின்

எல்லாம் means ‘all.’ In the Kural it makes the reproach universal and rhetorically strong; children should not turn that large claim into blaming every individual.

அறிவுடையா ரெல்லா முடையா ரறிவிலா
ரென்னுடைய ரேனு மிலர்

எல்லாம் means all or everything. Its emphatic breadth praises the wide usefulness of knowledge without claiming that food, shelter, care, or other material goods are unnecessary.

இமைப்பிற் கரப்பாக் கறிவ லனைத்திற்கே
யேதில ரென்னுமிவ் வூர்.

Ētilar means outsiders, people with no connection to you, and by extension people without affection. The sting of the word is that the town uses it for the very person who is closest of all. The one being called a stranger is at that moment being held inside her eyes.

உவந்துறைவ ருள்ளத்து ளென்று மிகந்துறைவ
ரேதில ரென்னுமிவ் வூர்.

Strangers; people with no connection or affection. It is a hard word, and the town uses it casually. That gap between how lightly the word is thrown and how much it would mean if it were true is the sting of the couplet.

மறமான மாண்ட வழிச்செலவு தேற்ற
மெனநான்கே யேமம் படைக்கு.

ஏமம் is a protection like a fort wall. Four different good qualities stand around the force as safeguards.

செய்தேமஞ் சாராச் சிறியவர் புன்கேண்மை
யெய்தலி னெய்தாமை நன்று.

Ēmam means protection or security. The missing quality is becoming a real safeguard when one can act, not repaying every favour received.

தென்புலத்தார் தெய்வம் விருந்தொக்கல் தானென்றாங்கு
ஐம்புலத்தாறு ஓம்பல் தலை

ஓம்பல் means 'cherishing, tending, nurturing with care.' It is gentler and more attentive than 'doing one's duty' — closer to how you guard a flame or nurse a young plant. The verse says the foremost household virtue is to ஓம்பு (tend) the path of five obligations 'without slipping.' English 'fulfil the duties' sounds like discharging a task; ஓம்பல் carries ongoing, watchful care — the duties are not ticked off but kept, continually, with tenderness.

வினைக்கண் வினைகெட லோம்பல் வினைக்குறை
தீர்ந்தாரிற் றீர்ந்தன் றுலகு.

ஓம்பல் is active safeguarding. Here one protects a work by finding and completing the unresolved part that could otherwise spoil the entire undertaking.

கடனென்ப நல்லவை யெல்லாங் கடனறிந்து
சான்றாண்மை மேற்கொள் பவர்க்கு.

கடன் is what is owed, and the word has not retired into literature: it is the ordinary modern Tamil for a bank loan, and it is written on the front of the building. The property the line is using is not that a debt is heavy. It is that a settled debt leaves nothing behind. Nobody records it, nobody is grateful for it, and there is no credit in it, because the money was never yours — you were only holding it. Set beside a good deed, which earns thanks and can be declined without failure, that is a different category altogether, and the line files the whole of good conduct in it. What Parimelazhagar then does with the second occurrence is the surprise: he takes it out of the ledger entirely and calls it nature.

கரப்பிலா நெஞ்சிற் கடனறிவார் முன்னின்
றிரப்புமோ ரேஎ ருடைத்து.

கடன் (kaṭaṉ) — what is owed. The people worth standing in front of are named here as கடன் அறிவார், the ones who know it: who know something is due and that they are the one who owes it. It is not a word for kindness. A kind person may still think nothing is owed, while கடன் அறிதல் is closer to reading your own account honestly. One thing has to be said plainly. This edition's Parimelazhagar quotes the first line's கடன் அறிவார் as his lemma and then supplies something else for it — மானம் அறிவார், those who know மானம், a person's regard for their own honour — and கடன் does not come back on the explanatory side. Pope's 'know what's due' and Aiyar's 'understand their duty' follow the printed word. Both readings are in front of you on this page, and the substitution is his.

அறன்கடை நின்றாருள் எல்லாம் பிறன்கடை
நின்றாரின் பேதையார் இல்.

கடை means a door, gate, threshold — also 'the lowest' or 'the end.' Valluvar plays on it: the fool stands at another's கடை (door), and is himself at the கடை (bottom) of the fallen. English needs 'threshold' and 'lowest' separately; the one Tamil word fuses them — to skulk at another's door is to stand at the very bottom of folly.

நண்பாற்றா ராகி நயமில செய்வார்க்கும்
பண்பாற்றா ராதல் கடை.

கடை is a word every reader already owns, and almost certainly owns wrongly. In modern Tamil it names a shop — one of the first hundred words anybody picks up — which makes it a genuine trap inside a classical line. Its earlier range was a scale: an end, a terminus, the bottom of something. That range has not died. It survives in the ordinary word for last, which is this root with a suffix on it. So the line does not close on an emotion. It closes on a position, and a position always raises the question of what exactly is being measured. The commentator answers that twice over. He converts the position into a verdict, giving it as a disgrace, and he specifies whose disgrace it is, naming those who have discernment. Both moves carry weight. The scale turns out to measure conduct — how a person carries themselves — so what gets ranked is a performance and not anybody’s worth. And a verdict aimed at the reader alone can never be turned round into a demand on the other party.

பற்றற்ற கண்ணே பிறப்பறுக்கு மற்று
நிலையாமை காணப் படும்

கண்ணே: பற்றற்ற கண்ணே means only in the state of nonattachment. The ending கண்ணே makes that condition exclusive.

கண்டுகேட் டுண்டுயிர்த் துற்றறியு மைம்புலனு
மொண்டொடி கண்ணே யுள.

Here கண் is not the eye but the word for a place — 'at, in, with' — and the ஏ added to it means 'only there, nowhere else'. One small syllable does all the narrowing in the couplet.

இரவா ரிரப்பார்க்கொன் றீவர் கரவாது
கைசெய்தூண் மாலை யவர்.

கரவாது (karavātu) — without concealing. The root கர- is to keep a thing out of sight, and the form here is not a second action but the manner of the giving: they give, and while they do it nothing is hidden. Parimelazhagar rewrites the words around it — ஈவர் becomes the everyday கொடுப்பர், ஒன்று opens out into அவர் வேண்டியது ஒன்றனை — and this one he sets down again unchanged, கரவாது கொடுப்பர். Pope's English has no equivalent for it at all; Aiyar supplies 'without ever saying nay', which is refusing rather than hiding, and the two are different acts. The same root stands sixteen couplets later, at 1051, in the chapter on asking: கரப்பின், if he conceals. There the one concealing is the person who was asked, and the blame is put on him and lifted off the asker. Here the actor is the other one, the giver whose settled way is not to conceal, and the word is praise. One root, the two ends of a single exchange. A limit said out loud belongs to neither of them: telling somebody what the money is already for gives the whole fact away.

கரவா துவந்தீயுங் கண்ணன்னார் கண்ணு
மிரவாமை கோடி யுறும்.

கரவாது (karavātu) — hiding nothing. கரத்தல் means to hide something you have and say that you do not have it. கரவாது is that word turned around: not hiding at all. It is the first word spoken about the giver here, ahead of anything at all about the giving. The girl with the ruler is like that. She does not keep it under her hand and tell you she has lost it.

அளவறிந்தார் நெஞ்சத் தறம்போல நிற்குங்
களவறிந்தார் நெஞ்சிற் கரவு

கரவு is concealment or deceit: the inner habit of hiding what supports wrongful taking.

இரவுள்ள வுள்ள முருகுங் கரவுள்ள
வுள்ளதூஉ மின்றிக் கெடும்.

கரவு (karavu) — concealment. Not being without something, but having it and covering it. Parimelazhagar puts the whole of it in one description of the person: அந்நிலையைக் கண்டுவைத்தவர், one who had seen the state the other was in, and then said there was none. Pope reaches for the asker's side of it with 'stern repulse' and Aiyar with 'the rebuffs that he receiveth', and that is honestly what it feels like from the outside. The Tamil word names what the other man did, and it is something done with a hand closed over something.

கருமஞ் சிதையாமற் கண்ணோட வல்லார்க்
குரிமை யுடைத்திவ் வுலகு.

Karumam is entrusted duty or work to be completed; considerate regard must guide it without causing it to fail.

கருமஞ் செயவொருவன் கைதூவே னென்னும்
பெருமையிற் பீடுடைய தில்.

கருமம் (karumam) — the work itself, the thing you took up and mean to finish. In the first line it is what the hand could come off, so it has to be one definite piece of work: this whistle, this bridge, these laces. Parimelazhagar calls it எண்ணிய கருமம், the work thought of beforehand. It does not mean being a hardworking person in general. It means the particular thing waiting for you on the table.

அறிவற்றங் காக்குங் கருவி செறுவார்க்கு
முள்ளழிக்க லாகா வரண்

கருவி means ‘instrument’ or ‘means.’ Here wisdom is not decoration; it is a working means that protects a person before damage becomes ruin.

கருவியுங் காலமுஞ் செய்கையுஞ் செய்யு
மருவினையு மாண்ட தமைச்சு.

கருவி means a tool or practical means. Here it is one part of capable planning: having a tool helps only when the time, method, and difficult action are also understood.

பொருள்தீர்ந்த பொச்சாந்தும் சொல்லார் மருள்தீர்ந்த
மாசறு காட்சி யவர்.

காட்சி means sight, vision, perception — here inner perception or insight (மாசு அறு காட்சி, 'flawless vision'). The verse credits clean speech to clear seeing. English 'vision' or 'sight' is close, but காட்சி is the faculty of perceiving truth clearly; so the verse roots speech in cognition — guard what you perceive and how clearly, and clean words follow even unbidden.

இருணீங்கி யின்பம் பயக்கு மருணீங்கி
மாசறு காட்சி யவர்க்கு

Kāṭci means sight or perception; here it is the philosophical perception of truth.

எப்பொரு ளெத்தன்மைத் தாயினு மப்பொருண்
மெய்ப்பொருள் காண்ப தறிவு

Kāṇpatu means seeing or discerning; here wisdom discerns the true reality, not merely the surface.

எப்பொருள் யார்யார்வாய்க் கேட்பினு மப்பொருண்
மெய்ப்பொருள் காண் பதறிவு

காண்பது means ‘seeing or discerning.’ It is more than hearing a claim; it asks the child to look until the truth of the matter becomes clear.

செயற்கரிய யாவுள நட்பி னதுபோல்
வினைக்கரிய யாவுள காப்பு.

காப்பு is the protection a hard-won friendship provides against hostile schemes. It works through mutual trust and verification, not control or surveillance.

ஏரினு நன்றா மெருவிடுதல் கட்டபி
னீரினு நன்றதன் காப்பு.

காப்பு (kāppu) — the guarding of something that is already growing. It closes the two lines, and it is where their ranking arrives. With the ploughing done, the manure on and the weeds out, standing over the crop is set above letting the water in. Parimelazhagar's phrase for it is அதனைக் காத்தல், the guarding of it. English 'protection' suggests something built around a thing; காப்பு here is closer to keeping watch — being there, day after day, over work that has already been done.

நிலத்திற் கிடந்தமை கால்காட்டுங் காட்டுங்
குலத்திற் பிறந்தார்வாய்ச் சொல்.

கால் has several senses in Tamil, and Parimelazhagar settles this one: முளைத்த முளை, the sprout that has come up in it. So the evidence named is a young shoot. The comparison then holds because a shoot is not testimony about the soil but the soil itself raised into view, and you cannot counterfeit one without changing the ground. The verb காட்டும் is stretched across both halves and printed twice at the join, which puts a word out of a mouth in exactly the position the shoot occupies.

இடுக்கண்கால் கொன்றிட வீழு மடுத்தூன்று
நல்லா ளிலாத குடி.

கால் (kāl) — the leg or foot of a thing: the part it stands on. A table has கால், a cot has கால், and a tree has one too, the trunk down where it goes into the ground. In these lines the trouble does not arrive at the top of the house. It arrives at the கால், and Parimelazhagar says the same thing in his own words, தன் முதலை வெட்டி, cutting it at its foot. Aiyar reads it as the roots and Pope as the foundation of a building; both mean the part underneath. That is why what is needed is a prop and not a patch: when the leg goes, everything above it has already started to move.

படைகுடி கூழமைச்சு நட்பர ணாறு
முடையா னரசரு ளேறு

குடி — Kuṭi means the people or population here; in modern application they are equal citizens with rights, not a ruler's property.

வானோக்கி வாழு முலகெல்லா மன்னவன்
கோனோக்கி வாழுங் குடி.

The collective word குடி identifies the subjects or people living under a ruler. It places actual lives on the human side of the comparison: whether the sceptre stays just affects their ability to continue ordinary life.

குடிமடிந்து குற்றம் பெருகு மடிமடிந்து
மாண்ட வுஞற்றில வர்க்கு.

குற்றம் means a fault or wrong that has entered the situation. Here it grows in number while the house declines because worthy effort is missing.

குற்ற மிலனாய்க் குடிசெய்து வாழ்வானைச்
சுற்றமாச் சுற்று முலகு.

குற்றம் (kuṟṟam) — a fault, and in this line a fault done rather than a flaw carried. Parimelazhagar expands the phrase as குற்றமாயின செய்யாது, not doing the things that are faults, and the plural in his wording keeps the word on acts. What is asked for is not a spotless nature, which nobody can audit, but a list of things done with nothing in it that would have to be explained away.

குறித்தது கூறாமைக் கொள்வாரோ டேனை
யுறுப்போ ரனையரால் வேறு.

குறித்தது is ‘what was intended or held in mind’. It keeps the comparison focused: the stronger observer does not merely notice motion but reaches the action another person has in view.

ஊனைக் குறித்த வுயிரெல்லா நாணென்னு
னன்மை குறித்தது சால்பு.

குறித்தது (kuṟittatu) — in everyday Tamil this word is about marking something or aiming at it. Here it has gone steadier than that: it means taking one thing as the place you stand and then not moving off it. A plant in a tin on the sill does not walk over to a different window.

அருளல்ல தியாதெனிற் கொல்லாமை கோறல்
பொருளல்ல தவ்வூன் றினல்

கொல்லாமை is the verbal noun ‘not killing’ or ‘the practice of refraining from killing.’ The Kural treats this restraint as the positive substance of compassion, not merely the absence of visible cruelty.

அறவினை யாதெனிற் கொல்லாமை கோறல்
பிறவினை யெல்லாந் தரும்

கொல்லாமை means refusal to take life. It stands not as one virtue among many, but as the defining beginning of virtue.

கேடும் பெருக்கமும் இல்லல்ல நெஞ்சத்துக்
கோடாமை சான்றோர்க்கு அணி.

கோடாமை (kōṭāmai) is not bending or deviating. The verse places this straightness in the mind before it appears in a verdict.

நாடோறு நாடுக மன்னன் வினைசெய்வான்
கோடாமை கோடா துலகு.

கோடாமை (kōṭāmai) means not bending or deviating from the proper course. In entrusted work, it points to steadiness in duty and result—not flawless performance or permission to inspect a person's whole life.

சார்புணர்ந்து சார்புகெட வொழுகின் மற்றழித்துச்
சார்தரா சார்தரு நோய்

சார்பு: சார்பு is support or attachment. Its first use points to the supreme support; the later uses name bonds and karmic suffering that would otherwise cling.

இறந்தமைந்த சார்புடைய ராயினு முய்யார்
சிறந்தமைந்த சீரார் செறின்.

Cārpu is support, attachment, refuge, or the alliance on which someone depends. The statement does not say the target stands alone; it deliberately grants support of extraordinary scale and then denies that it can deliver escape. That failed reliance is the chapter's final escalation.

நயனில சொல்லினும் சொல்லுக சான்றோர்
பயனில சொல்லாமை நன்று.

சான்றோர் means the worthy, the complete or accomplished — those 'filled' with virtue and learning (from சால், to be full or sufficient). The verse holds even சான்றோர் to the rule. English 'the wise' is close, but சான்றோர் means people of proven fullness of character — so the point bites harder: if even the most complete person should avoid useless words, no one is exempt.

சொல்லப் பயன்படுவர் சான்றோர் கரும்புபோற்
கொல்லப் பயன்படுங் கீழ்.

சான்றோர் (cāṉṟōr) — the worthy; those who are complete. It comes from சால், to be full or sufficient, so the word says something specific: not the powerful, not the learned, not the well-born, but those in whom something is filled up. This is the term the whole chapter has been set against, and it appears here for the first time. That placing is deliberate. Seven couplets describe கயவர் without a counterweight, and only now, at the eighth, does Valluvar put the other kind on the page. The related noun சால்பு names the quality itself, and chapter 99 is given over to it — so this line is also a door out of this chapter and into that one.

செருக்குஞ் சினமுஞ் சிறுமையு மில்லார்
பெருக்கம் பெருமித நீர்த்து

சிறுமை literally suggests smallness; Parimelazhagar specifically reads it here as degrading lust, a ruler's desire that reduces others to objects—not sexuality or ordinary desire itself.

சிறுமை பலசெய்து சீரழிக்குங் சூதின்
வறுமை தருவதொன் றில்.

சிறுமை names hardship by naming size. It sits on the axis of small and large rather than on the axis of pain, so what it reports is a person reduced, not a person grieved. That is why the line sets it directly against சீர், which is greatness, distinction, the bulk that a name carries. One measuring stick, two directions: many made small, and the one large thing destroyed. An English hardship word states the suffering and is silent about the measurement, and the measurement is where the argument lives.

சீரினுஞ் சீரல்ல செய்யாரே சீரொடு
பேராண்மை வேண்டு பவர்

சீர் carries fame, excellence and good order together, and the line puts it on both sides of a bargain: even for சீர், they will not do things that are not சீர். What could be gained bears the same name as what would have to be broken, so the exchange cannot settle. Then the third occurrence takes the ending that means accompanied by, and Parimelazhagar reads the pairing as honour established together with fame. Not one instead of the other. Both, arriving in company.

சீருடைச் செல்வர் சிறுதுனி மாரி
வறங்கூர்ந் தனைய துடைத்து.

சீர் (cīr) — worth, excellence, the quality that earns praise. Parimelazhagar glosses the phrase as புகழுடைத்தாய செல்வம், wealth that has honour attached to it. The word does not describe how much there is; it describes what kind it is.

கொடுப்பது அழுக்கறுப்பான் சுற்றம் உடுப்பதூஉம்
உண்பதூஉம் இன்றிக் கெடும்.

சுற்றம் means one's kin, relatives, the circle of family and dependents around a person (from சுற்று, to surround). Valluvar says the begrudger's சுற்றம் is ruined. English 'family' is close, but சுற்றம் is wider — the whole surrounding circle that depends on you — so the verse shows envy's harm radiating outward from the envier to everyone in his keeping.

குற்ற மிலனாய்க் குடிசெய்து வாழ்வானைச்
சுற்றமாச் சுற்று முலகு.

சுற்றம் (cuṟṟam) — the people round you who count as your own. The word stands on the same base as சுற்று, to go round, so this word for kin names people by where they stand rather than by whose blood they carry. That is why the second line can hand the word to strangers: they take the position, and nobody asked them to.

செய்யாமற் செய்த உதவிக்கு வையகமும்
வானகமும் ஆற்றல் அரிது.

செய்யாமல் literally means 'without [your] having done [anything] first' — the help comes to you though you did nothing to earn it. English needs a whole phrase, 'unprompted, with no prior favour,' to carry it. The single Tamil word holds the verse's whole moral weight: the kindness is precious precisely because nothing was owed.

செய்யாமற் செற்றார்க்கு மின்னாத செய்தபி
னுய்யா விழுமந் தரும்

செய்யாமல் means ‘without having done.’ It establishes that the person first attacked had not caused an earlier injury, making the later choice to retaliate a new moral act.

கறுத்தின்னா செய்த வக்கண்ணு மறுத்தின்னா
செய்யாமை மாசற்றார் கோள்

செய்யாமை means ‘not doing.’ The strength lies in the harmful return that is deliberately left undone, even after another child acted with spite.

எற்றென் றிரங்குவ செய்யற்க செய்வானேல்
மற்றன்ன செய்யாமை நன்று.

செய்யாமை means leaving the harmful act undone; after a mistake, it specifically becomes non-repetition.

செல்லிடத்துக் காப்பான் சினங்காப்பா னல்லிடத்துக்
காக்கிலென் காவாக்கா லென்

செல்லிடத்து means ‘in the place where it can take effect.’ For a teen, that may be any role in which one click, signature, or decision can make anger count against another person.

செல்லா விடத்துச் சினந்தீது செல்லிடத்து
மில்லதனிற் றீய பிற

செல்லிடத்து is ‘where anger can take effect.’ In a teen’s life, age, group permissions, popularity, or skill can create that place. Anger there is the more dangerous kind.

செறிவறிந்து சீர்மை பயக்கும் அறிவறிந்து
ஆற்றின் அடங்கப் பெறின்.

செறிவு means closeness, density, compactness — here, the close-knit firmness of a well-governed self (from செறி, to be packed tight). The good 'know him by his செறிவு.' English 'firmness' or 'self-possession' is close, but செறிவு pictures something densely woven, with no loose gaps — a character so closely held together that its discipline is visible from outside.

நன்றென் றவற்றுள்ளு நன்றே முதுவருண்
முந்து கிளவாச் செறிவு.

செறிவு is contained self-command. Here it is the strength to keep one's speech back until those senior in relevant knowledge have spoken.

கல்லா தவரு நனிநல்லர் கற்றார்முற்
சொல்லா திருக்கப் பெறின்

சொல்லா means without speaking. It points to chosen restraint before knowledgeable people, not to permanent silence or the removal of anyone's right to speak.

கொல்லா நலத்தது நோன்மை பிறர்தீமை
சொல்லா நலத்தது சால்பு.

சொல்லா is the negative participle of சொல், to say — the most ordinary verb there is. What makes it the heart of the line is where it has been placed. Directly above it in the first half stands கொல்லா, in the identical construction, negating the verb for taking life, and a single consonant is all that stands between them. So the design has done something before any argument is offered: it has put not-saying into the slot the tradition reserves for not-killing. Nothing in the line defends that. It builds it, and the near-rhyme makes it impossible to hear the two apart, which is the point. What the commentator specifies is the object: another's fault. Not speech, and not facts. Fault.

நாண்வேலி கொள்ளாது மன்னோ வியன்ஞாலம்
பேணலர் மேலா யவர்.

ஞாலம் (ñālam) is the earth — not a country, not a crowd, but the whole ground under everybody. Parimelazhagar widens it further with அகன்ற, broad. It is the largest single thing the language has to hand, and it is what the hedge here keeps outside. Naming something that big has one purpose: after it, there is nothing bigger left that anyone could offer you.

இரப்பாரை யில்லாயி னீர்ங்கண்மா ஞால
மரப்பாவை சென்றுவந் தற்று.

ஞாலம் (ñālam) — the world; the ground people live and move about on. It is the older word, and today one says உலகம். It names the inhabited earth and not the sky. This is what the comparison is actually made about: the thing said to be figure-like is the going and coming of the world, never a person, so the doll in a story stands for nobody at all. Parimelazhagar takes one step further and writes ஞாலத்துள்ளார் செலவு வரவுகள், the goings and comings of those in the world — and they are his own, standing nowhere in the two lines themselves.

தகுதி எனவொன்று நன்றே பகுதியான்
பாற்பட்டு ஒழுகப் பெறின்.

தகுதி (takuti) here is the excellence or fitness called impartiality. It does not classify some human beings as more worthy than others.

மிகுதியான் மிக்கவை செய்தாரைத் தாந்தம்
தகுதியான் வென்று விடல்

"Worthiness, fitness, one's own proper standard of conduct." Valluvar's word for the means of victory: not weapons, not matching insults, but your own character held steady. To win தம் தகுதியான் is to win by being worthy — letting the contrast between their excess and your restraint settle the matter.

கல்லா வொருவன் தகைமை தலைப்பெய்து
சொல்லாடச் சோர்வு படும்

தகைமை means quality, worth, or stature. Here it is the intellectual standing an unlearned person attributes to himself before informed conversation tests it.

தாளாண்மை யென்னும் தகைமக்கட் டங்கிற்றே
வேளாண்மை என்னுஞ் செருக்கு.

தகைமை is a worthy quality you truly possess. Here it is the persevering ability that supports an act of help until the intended benefit reaches another.

ஏதிலா ராரத் தமர்பசிப்பர் பேதை
பெருஞ்செல்வ முற்றக் கடை.

Tamar means one's own people or kin—those joined by relationship and, in a modern application, people with a legitimate claim of care or reliance. It does not make all outsiders less worthy.

அமரகத்து வன்கண்ணர் போலத் தமரகத்து
மாற்றுவார் மேற்றே பொறை.

தமர் (tamar) — one's own people: the family and the household you belong to. The two lines set them beside the people standing in a battle, where the shock goes to the ones who do not flinch, and say the weight moves the same way at home. Parimelazhagar describes this group as everyone born into the house, so it is not a chosen few. And the word says nothing at all about which of them is older, or bigger, or more important; it says only that they are yours.

பழிமலைந் தெய்திய வாக்கத்திற் சான்றோர்
கழிநல் குரவே தலை.

தலை is the final judgment ‘superior’ or ‘better’; it reverses the usual ranking of wealth above poverty.

சுழன்று மேர்ப்பின்ன துலக மதனா
லுழந்து முழவே தலை.

தலை (talai) — the head. In ordinary speech it means the head on your shoulders, and Tamil also uses it the way English says 'the head of the list' or 'the top': the head of something is the part that comes first. Parimelazhagar reads the last words as தலையாய தொழில் உழவே, the chief occupation is tillage. So it is a place in an order, not a compliment. Being the head does not mean a job is pleasant. It means everything else is lined up behind it.

தன்னுயிர் தானறப் பெற்றானை யேனைய
மன்னுயி ரெல்லாந் தொழும்

தன்னுயிர் joins ‘one's own’ and ‘life-self.’ The verse then says the practitioner has gained that self as truly his own. The phrase conveys mastery or self-possession more deeply than simple confidence.

தன்னுயிர் நீப்பினுஞ் செய்யற்க தான்பிறி
தின்னுயிர் நீக்கும் வினை

தன்னுயிர் means one's own life. Placed beside இன்னுயிர், it creates the hardest contrast between self-preservation and another being's life.

ஊழையு முப்பக்கங் காண்ப ருலைவின்றித்
தாழா துஞற்று பவர்

தாழாது means without delaying or letting the effort drop away. It does not forbid rest; it means the work is not abandoned or left indefinitely ownerless between safe attempts.

சூழாமற் றானே முடிவெய்துந் தங்குடியைத்
தாழா துஞற்று பவர்க்கு.

தாழாது (tāḻātu) — without letting it sink, without letting it wait. தாழ் is the ordinary word for going down: a lowered voice, a low place, a bolt that drops. Its negative participle here says the work is not put down and not set lower on the day's list. Parimelazhagar takes it as speed rather than as endurance — விரைந்து முயல்வார்க்கு, those who strive at it quickly — so what is being ruled out is the gap between deciding and starting. It says nothing about how hard the work is, and nothing about how long it will take once begun.

மடியுளாண் மாமுகடி யென்ப மடியிலான்
றாளுளா டாமரையி னாள்

தாள் literally means the foot. In the image, prosperity stands at the active person's feet: effort gives flourishing a footing. It does not mean one person belongs beneath another.

தெண்ணீர் அடுபுற்கை யாயினுந் தாடந்த
துண்ணலி னூங்கினிய தில்.

தாள் is the ordinary word for the leg or the foot, and here it stands for the work a person does with their own body: the walking, the standing, the lifting. Parimelazhagar reads it as effort that keeps to the right road, which leaves out anything got by a crooked one. The grammar is what makes it unusual. தாள் is the giver in the sentence — the food is not something you obtained, it is something your own exertion brought and handed to you.

தாளாண்மை யென்னும் தகைமக்கட் டங்கிற்றே
வேளாண்மை என்னுஞ் செருக்கு.

தாளாண்மை is persevering capability: the strength to keep doing the work an intended benefit requires. It is the supporting quality within dependable help.

தாளாண்மை யில்லாதான் வேளாண்மை பேடிகை
வாளாண்மை போலக் கெடும்.

தாளாண்மை is the persevering capacity that equips generous intention to work. Without it, the resource may exist while the intended benefit never reaches anyone.

உயர்வகலந் திண்மை யருமையிந் நான்கி
னமைவர ணென்றுரைக்கு நூல்.

திண்மை means firm strength. In the block test, it is visible when pieces stay joined instead of bending or separating; it is different from being tall.

இன்மை யொருவற் கிளிவன்று சால்பென்னுந்
திண்மை யுண்டாகப் பெறின்.

திண்மை means firmness, hardness, solidity, and Parimelazhagar glosses it as strength. It is worth taking the physical sense at face value, because the chapter has reached for objects throughout — five pillars, a weapon, an assayer’s stone — and this word continues that. What it borrows from a solid is one specific behaviour and not a mood: a solid is the thing that does not deform. No claim is therefore being made about how the quality feels to whoever has it. It makes a claim about what happens to its shape under load.

அறனறிந் தான்றமைந்த சொல்லானெஞ் ஞான்றுந்
திறனறிந்தான் றேர்ச்சித் துணை.

திறன் means the effective way or means suited to an action. Here the trusted helper knows not only what is right, but how it can be carried out.

திறனறிந்து சொல்லுக சொல்லை யறனும்
பொருளு மதனினூஉங் கில்.

திறன் joins the speaker's warranted capacity and the hearer's actual condition; fitting speech depends on knowing both.

தீயள வன்றித் தெரியான் பெரிதுண்ணி
னோயள வின்றிப் படும்.

தீ is the ordinary Tamil word for fire, and the healing treatises of ஆயுள்வேதம் borrowed it for a digestive heat they placed inside the body. Read that as those texts describing things in their own way, historically, and not as a statement about how anyone works today. What the sentence needs from the word is simpler. Fire is a quantity, and no two of them are the same size. So the standard named here could never be printed as a rule for everybody; it is a figure held only by this man's own body, which is why not going to look for it is the entire fault.

நீங்கிற் றெறூஉங் குறுகுங்காற் றண்ணென்னுந்
தீயாண்டுப் பெற்றா ளிவள்.

Fire. The couplet does not say she is like fire; it says she has somehow acquired a fire that behaves backwards — scorching at a distance, cooling up close — and the wonder is where such a thing could possibly be found.

துப்பார்க்குத் துப்பாய துப்பாக்கித் துப்பார்க்குத்
துப்பாய தூஉ மழை

Sustenance or food. Its repeated forms let one Tamil root carry eating, producing food, and rainwater as something consumed.

மறவற்க மாசற்றார் கேண்மை துறவற்க
துன்பத்துட் டுப்பாயார் நட்பு.

துப்பு means strength, the means of support — what you lean on. Calling a friend your துப்பு in trouble pictures them as the very thing that held you up when you could not stand alone. English 'support' is close, but துப்பு carries the harder sense of strength or resource — the firm thing under you in a fall.

இன்பம் விழையான் வினைவிழைவான் றன்கேளிர்
துன்பந் துடைத்தூன்றுந் தூண்.

தூண் is a pillar that bears weight and keeps a structure standing. Here it is a person whose purposeful action removes a close circle's hardship and helps prevent its return—not someone required to suffer alone.

அன்புநா ணொப்புரவு கண்ணோட்டம் வாய்மையொ
டைந்துசால் பூன்றிய தூண்.

தூண் is a pillar, and it is the ordinary word — the stone uprights in a temple hall are தூண்கள் and so is the post holding up a veranda. It stands last, and until it lands what precedes it is only five nouns in a row. What makes it more than decoration is the commentator's phrase for what the pillars carry: he calls fullness of character a weight. Pillars under a weight are not ornaments, and they do not share the job in proportion. Remove one and the load does not come down by a fifth. It comes down.

தெய்வத்தா னாகா தெனினு முயற்சிதன்
மெய்வருத்தக் கூலி தரும்

தெய்வம் here carries the commentary's sense of fate or the allotment of circumstances, not a claim that a deity deliberately punishes the worker. It marks what can block an intended result beyond one's control.

குடிசெய்வ லென்னு மொருவற்குத் தெய்வ
மடிதற்றுத் தான்முந் துறும்.

தெய்வம் (teyvam) — god, the divine power. In Tamil this word is not a he and not a she: it belongs to the class the language keeps for what is not a human person, so no sex is marked. The verb beside it is no help with counting either, because that ending is the same whether one thing is meant or many — மரம் விழும் is a tree falling and மரங்கள் விழும் is trees falling. The two old English translations on this page each had to pick something. Pope wrote 'the goddess' and Aiyar wrote 'the Gods'. Those choices are theirs, and the Tamil contradicts neither. What it says plainly is that தெய்வம் went in front.

அன்போடு இயைந்த வழக்கென்ப ஆருயிர்க்கு
என்போடு இயைந்த தொடர்பு

தொடர்பு (toḍarbu) is a connection or bond. Here it is the joining of precious life or soul with the body; the commentary says the purpose of that embodied connection is the practice of love.

இருமனப் பெண்டிருங் கள்ளுங் கவறுந்
திருநீக்கப் பட்டார் தொடர்பு.

தொடர்பு is association or companionship. It is the predicate that gathers the three named items beside the people described as abandoned by Fortune; it states an association, not that one item causes the next or that misfortune proves guilt.

எல்லார்க்கு மெல்ல நிகழ்பவை யெஞ்ஞான்றும்
வல்லறிதல் வேந்தன் றொழில்.

தொழில் marks this as the king's duty. A teen's role is not espionage; it is openly carrying a safety fact to the adult responsible.

பிறப்பொக்கு மெல்லா வுயிர்க்குஞ் சிறப்பொவ்வா
செய்தொழில் வேற்றுமை யான்.

தொழில் here means a deed, an act, something done — and it is qualified by a word meaning done, so what is named is the work performed. In modern Tamil the same noun has narrowed hard toward occupation, trade and industry, which makes this one of the easier lines to misread into something it is not: a ranking of jobs by prestige. The commentary blocks that reading by glossing the word as what people perform. What is being weighed is not what somebody is employed as. It is what they have actually done, which is a much wider category and includes a great deal that nobody is paid for.

பகச்சொல்லிக் கேளிர்ப் பிரிப்பர் நகச்சொல்லி
நட்பாடல் தேற்றா தவர்.

நகச்சொல்லி joins நக, here the shared delight or gladness that speech can produce, with சொல்லி, 'by speaking.' Parimelazhagar explains it as saying pleasant words so that people may come together and rejoice. It is not a false smile or forced cheerfulness. The word gains force from its contrast with பகச்சொல்லி: one kind of speech creates relationship, while the other divides it.

தொகச்சொல்லித் தூவாத நீக்கி நகச்சொல்லி
நன்றி பயப்பதாந் தூது.

நகச்சொல்லி means speaking in words that let the hearer remain open. It is gracious accuracy, not forced cheerfulness or concealment.

இகலானா மின்னாத வெல்லா நகலானா
நன்னய மென்னுஞ் செருக்கு.

Nakal here means friendly engagement or fellowship, not merely smiling.

நகல்வல்ல ரல்லார்க்கு மாயிரு ஞாலம்
பகலும்பாற் பட்டன் றிருள்.

நகல் comes from நகு, which is the ordinary verb for laughing, and left on its own the word would put this line somewhere it does not belong — among the cheerful and the uncheerful. The commentator moves it twice, and both moves are narrowings. First he moves it inward, giving it as being glad within, so what is named is a state and not a face. Second he attaches it to another person, using a word that means mingled or joined, which rules out anything somebody can arrive at alone on a good week. Being glad, inwardly, along with somebody: that is the whole of what the word is asked to carry. Then he does the thing that matters most and states the cause. The inability is by reason of the absence of the quality — which places this on the same axis as the rest of the chapter and takes it off the axis of temperament altogether. Nothing here reaches a person who is quiet, or tired by company, or grieving.

நகையு முவகையுங் கொல்லுஞ் சினத்திற்
பகையு முளவோ பிற

நகை means a smile or laughter visible on the face. Beside inner delight, it reveals how anger can empty both at once.

நகையீகை யின்சொ லிகழாமை நான்கும்
வகையென்ப வாய்மைக் குடிக்கு.

நகை comes from நகு, which is used of a person smiling and equally of a flower opening, and Parimelazhagar glosses it here as முகமலர்ச்சி — the face flowering. So it is not amusement and not a joke; it is an opening. And he fixes exactly when it happens: வறியார் சென்றவழி, when someone in need has gone to you. That single phrase turns four general courtesies into four parts of one moment, and it puts the opening of the face before anything is given.

குடம்பை தனித்தொழியப் புட்பறந் தற்றே
யுடம்பொ டுயிரிடை நட்பு

நட்பு means bond, affinity, or relationship. Here it names the temporary joining of உடம்பு and உயிர்.

உடம்பொ டுயிரிடை யென்னமற் றன்ன
மடந்தையொ டெம்மிடை நட்பு.

Bond, attachment, friendship. Classical Tamil uses it for the tie between body and life as readily as for the tie between two people, so it carries no romance of its own — the warmth in this couplet comes from what it is compared to.

நல்லவை யெல்லாந் தீயவாந் தீயவு
நல்லவாஞ் செல்வஞ் செயற்கு

நல்லவை means favorable things. Their material effect may change even though moral right and wrong do not exchange places.

எனைத்தானு நல்லவை கேட்க வனைத்தானு
மான்ற பெருமை தரும்

நல்லவை means sound and beneficial truths worth receiving, even in a small measure; it does not mean whatever is pleasant or socially approved.

எல்லாப் பொருளு முடைத்தா யிடத்துதவு
நல்லா ளுடைய தரண்.

நல்லாள் is a capable, loyal defender suited to help the fort at danger points. It is not a generic statement that morally nice people are enough.

இடுக்கண்கால் கொன்றிட வீழு மடுத்தூன்று
நல்லா ளிலாத குடி.

நல்லாள் (nallāḷ) — நல், good, and ஆள், a person. ஆள் is the everyday Tamil word for somebody who can be set to the work and counted on: ஒரு ஆள் வேண்டும், we need a person; ஆள் இல்லை, there is nobody. The expanded reading printed with these lines splits it நல் ஆள். Parimelazhagar reads that person as a man — தாங்கவல்ல நல்ல ஆண்மகன், a good man able to bear it up — and Aiyar's English follows him, 'hath no good man to prop it up'. Pope does not: his line is 'if no strong hand be nigh'. So the maleness a reader meets here came from a commentator and from a translator, and what the Tamil supplies is a good person. The same word stands at 1040, where the same commentator reads it நிலமகள், the earth spoken of as a woman — one word, read two ways, each time out of what stood around it.

தந்தை மகற்காற்று நன்றி யவையத்து
முந்தி யிருப்பச் செயல்

நன்றி here means the good, the benefaction — the genuine benefit one does for another (the same root gives the word for 'gratitude,' the good remembered). English 'favour' is too light; நன்றி is substantial good, the real and lasting kind. The verse asks what நன்றி a parent owes a child and answers: not wealth but learning — defining the truest good a parent can do as equipping the child to stand, by their own ability, among the wise.

நன்றிமறப்பது நன்றன்று நன்றல்ல
தன்றே மறப்பது நன்று.

நன்றி means both 'a good thing done' and 'gratitude' — the deed and the remembering of it are one word. That is the verse's whole point: to forget நன்றி is to lose both the kindness and the virtue of recalling it. English splits 'a kindness' from 'gratitude'; Tamil keeps them inseparable, as they should be.

இன்னா செய்தாரை யொறுத்த லவர்நாண
நன்னயஞ் செய்து விடல்

நன்னயம் is good, gracious conduct. It is not flattery; it is a real benefit that stands in moral contrast to the harm received.

இகலானா மின்னாத வெல்லா நகலானா
நன்னய மென்னுஞ் செருக்கு.

Nal-nayam means good justice: fair and beneficial order in shared life.

நாளென வொன்றுபோற் காட்டி யுயிரீரும்
வாள துணர்வாற் பெறின்

நாள் is an ordinary day. The surprise of is that this familiar unit can hide continuous change.

கேளிழுக்கங் கேளாக் கெழுதகைமை வல்லார்க்கு
நாளிழுக்க நட்டார் செயின்.

Nāḷ means “day.” A friend’s verified fault can become a useful day when it brings direct truth, accountability, and repair.

வசையிலா வண்பயன் குன்று மிசையிலா
யாக்கை பொறுத்த நிலம்

நிலம் is the land, personified here as bearing a human body and possessing produce that can decline. The personification carries moral imagery; land is not literally evaluating the reputation of the people upon it.

இலமென் றசைஇ யிருப்பாரைக் காணி
னிலமென்னு நல்லா ணகும்.

நிலம் (nilam) — the ground. It is the same word children already know from நிலநடுக்கம், an earthquake, and நிலக்கடலை, the groundnut, the nut that grows below the soil. Here the ground is not simply mentioned. It is spoken to as somebody, and given a good name — நிலம் என்னும் நல்லாள், the good one who is called Land. Parimelazhagar says that naming is a mark of respect: நிலமகள் என்று உயர்த்துச் சொல்லப்படுகின்ற. So the one who answers the sentence is the ground itself, and not any person standing near.

காதல காத லறியாமை யுய்க்கிற்பின்
னேதில வேதிலார் நூல்

நூல் literally can mean thread or text; here it means the calculated design or stratagem by which an enemy tries to exploit a ruler's known attachment.

பகையகத்துப் பேடிகை யொள்வா ளவையகத்
தஞ்சு மவன்கற்ற நூல்.

Here nūl is learned textual knowledge, not merely a physical book. Its value is tested when what was learned becomes available to a discerning assembly.

எண்சேர்ந்த நெஞ்சத் திடனுடையார்க் கெஞ்ஞான்றும்
பெண்சேர்ந்தாம் பேதைமை யில்.

Neñcam is the inner mind or heart. Joined with eṇ, it is not cold calculation opposed to love; it is a mind in which affection and judgement can coexist without one erasing the other.

நன்றறி வாரிற் கயவர் திருவுடையர்
நெஞ்சத் தவல மிலர்.

நெஞ்சம் (neñcam) — the chest, and so the heart, and so the mind. In Tamil this one word covers all three, and that is useful here. The verse says the trouble is நெஞ்சத்து, in the நெஞ்சம் — inside, where nobody can see it. That is why the two children in these stories look exactly the same from outside on the evening after. The word is completely ordinary and children use it every day: நெஞ்சு வலிக்கிறது for a pain in the chest, and மனசு for the same inner place.

நெஞ்சிற் றுறவார் துறந்தார்போல் வஞ்சித்து
வாழ்வாரின் வண்கணா ரில்

The printed நெஞ்சிற் restores to நெஞ்சின், ‘in or from the heart,’ before துறவார். It locates the missing renunciation inwardly: attachment has not been released there. The phrase does not demand public exposure of every thought; it matters because a contrary renunciant identity is then used to deceive donors.

அளவறிந்தார் நெஞ்சத் தறம்போல நிற்குங்
களவறிந்தார் நெஞ்சிற் கரவு

The printed நெஞ்சிற் restores to நெஞ்சில், ‘in the heart or mind’; it describes where a practised tendency stands.

நெருந லுளனொருவ னின்றில்லை யென்னும்
பெருமை யுடைத்திவ் வுலகு

நெருநல் means yesterday. Its closeness to இன்று—today—compresses life's change into the smallest familiar span.

இன்றும் வருவது கொல்லோ நெருநலுங்
கொன்றது போலும் நிரப்பு.

நெருநல் (nerunal) — yesterday. It is the old word; today everybody says நேற்று instead. On the page it appears as நெருநலுங், with the joining உம் that means 'as well', and that small suffix does most of the work in the sentence: it ties the day being asked about to a day that has already been survived. Without it the line would be a worry about the future. With it, the future is being measured against something that actually took place.

ஐயுணர் வெய்தியக் கண்ணும் பயமின்றே
மெய்யுணர் வில்லா தவர்க்கு

Payam here means benefit or fruit, not fear; says sensory mastery alone lacks the liberating result.

பல்லவை கற்றும் பயமிலரே நல்லவையு
ணன்கு செலச்சொல்லா தார்.

Payam here means benefit or usefulness, not fear. The line denies public benefit to learning that never becomes effective speech in a good assembly.

பயனில பல்லார்முன் சொல்லல் நயனில
நட்டார்கண் செய்தலின் தீது.

பல்லார் means 'the many, many people' (from பல, many). The verse's force is that the wrong is committed பல்லார் முன் — before the many — so the waste is multiplied across a crowd. English needs 'before many'; the Tamil packs into one word the idea that an audience makes idle speech not a small lapse but a public offence scaled to the number who must endure it.

ஏமுற் றவரினு மேழை தமியனாய்ப்
பல்லார் பகைகொள் பவன்.

Pallār means many people; the plural is essential because the warning concerns multiplying hostile fronts.

அறைபறை யன்னர் கயவர்தாங் கேட்ட
மறைபிறர்க் குய்த்துரைக்க லான்.

பறை (paṟai) — a drum, of the kind beaten to make a public announcement. In old Tamil towns the பறை was how news reached everybody at once: an order, a death, a warning. That is why the comparison is chosen and not, say, a bell. A பறை exists in order to be heard by everyone in range, which is precisely what a secret must not be. Two things about the word are worth knowing. The compound அறைபறை is nearly a definition — the struck drum, sounding only when hit and unable to hold anything back. And the ordinary Tamil expression பறை சாற்றுதல், to proclaim by drum, is still the phrase used for announcing something publicly.

அனிச்சப்பூக் கால்களையாள் பெய்தா ணுசுப்பிற்கு
நல்ல படாஅ பறை.

A drum. In old Tamil life drums announced events, and different beats belonged to different occasions. The couplet says the good drums will not sound, which is how it turns a compliment into dread without naming the bad news directly.

பழியஞ்சிப் பாத்தூண் உடைத்தாயின் வாழ்க்கை
வழியெஞ்சல் எஞ்ஞான்றும் இல்

பாத்தூண் joins pāgu ('to divide, share out') and ūṇ ('food, the meal'): the meal that is shared before it is eaten. It is not leftovers given after one is satisfied, but the portion set apart first. English 'sharing food' misses the order the word insists on — the dividing comes before the eating. The verse makes this small act, paired with fearing blame, the test of a home that endures.

பாத்தூண் மரீஇ யவனைப் பசியென்னுந்
தீப்பிணி தீண்ட லரிது

பாத்தூண் expands to பாத்து ஊண்: food eaten after being divided into portions for others. For adults, it suggests an acquired, repeated way of arranging meals, not a dramatic one-time donation. The habit creates solidarity even though it cannot promise immunity from hardship.

அழுக்காறு எனஒரு பாவி திருச்செற்றுத்
தீயுழி உய்த்து விடும்.

பாவி means a sinner, a wicked or cruel person (from பாவம், sin). Valluvar boldly calls envy itself a பாவி — 'one matchless sinner' — treating an abstract fault as a living criminal. English 'sinner' is exact, but the daring is in applying a word for a cruel person to a feeling, to drive home that envy is not a passive flaw but an active wrongdoer lodged inside you.

இன்மை யெனவொரு பாவி மறுமையு
மிம்மையு மின்றி வரும்.

பாவி (pāvi) — a sinner, from பாவம், sin. It is not an old word kept alive by scholars; it is current, and said of a person it is one of the harder things one person says to another. Here it is fastened to இன்மை and to nothing else. Parimelazhagar's phrasing is வறுமை என்று சொல்லப்படுவதொரு பாவி — a பாவி that is spoken of as poverty — so the severity is neither softened nor pointed at anybody. The one person-word in these two lines is this one, and it is the name given to the shortage. A person the shortage arrives at is not what is being named.

அணியன்றோ நாணுடைமை சான்றோர்க் கஃதின்றேற்
பிணியன்றோ பீடு நடை.

பிணி (piṇi) — an illness, something that hurts. The strange part is who it hurts. Parimelazhagar writes கண்டார்க்குப் பிணியாம், an affliction to those who saw it, so the ache the walk causes is not the walker's; it belongs to whoever is watching and knows.

பிணிக்கு மருந்து பிறம னணியிழை
தன்னோய்க்குத் தானே மருந்து.

Illness, and also a binding or a knot, from the verb pini, to tie. The word carries both senses at once, which is why it fits a feeling that ties you up and makes you unwell in the same movement.

அன்பொரீஇத் தற்செற் றறநோக்கா தீட்டிய
வொண்பொருள் கொள்வார் பிறர்.

பிறர் (piṟar) — others, other people. This is the word everything ends on, and all that comes before it is what one man gave up. Then it names who has the good of what he gave it up for.

பிறர்நாணத் தக்கது தானாணா னாயி
னறநாணத் தக்க துடைத்து.

பிறர் (piṟar) — other people, everybody who is not you. Parimelazhagar narrows it to கேட்டாரும் கண்டாரும், the ones who saw it and the ones who only heard about it afterwards. It does not mean whatever a crowd happens to like. It means the people who would pull back from something unkind, whether they were standing there or were told about it later.

ஒறுத்தார்க்கு ஒருநாளை இன்பம் பொறுத்தார்க்குப்
பொன்றுந் துணையும் புகழ்

"Renown, lasting praise — the good name that outlives you." Not fame in the modern sense of attention, but the durable regard of others, earned slowly. Valluvar sets it directly against ஒருநாளை இன்பம், a single day's pleasure; the entire verse lives in the gap between those two timescales.

ஒன்றா வுலகத் துயர்ந்த புகழல்லாற்
பொன்றாது நிற்பதொன் றில்

புகழ் is a good name spoken by others. Here it is called உயர்ந்த and இணையற்ற: not a prize grabbed quickly, but praise the poem sets above things that wear away.

உண்ணாமை வேண்டும் புலாஅல் பிறிதொன்றன்
புண்ண துணர்வார்ப் பெறின்

புண் means a wound, an injured place in a living body. The verse uses this concrete bodily word to prevent flesh from appearing detached from the creature whose body was harmed.

கண்ணுடைய ரென்பவர் கற்றோர் முகத்திரண்டு
புண்ணுடையர் கல்லா தவர்

புண் means wound in the inherited harsh image; no person’s eyes, literacy, or interrupted education makes that person a wound.

சினமென்னுஞ் சேர்ந்தாரைக் கொல்லி யினமென்னு
மேமப் புணையைச் சுடும்

புணை means a raft—something that carries a person across water. Here it helps us picture family and friends as support that anger can destroy.

காமக் கடும்புன லுய்க்குமே நாணொடு
நல்லாண்மை யென்னும் புணை.

A raft or float used to cross water — not a boat and not a bridge, but something you hold on to. The couplet calls shame and manliness a puṇai, which already admits they can be swept away.

பிறன்பொருளாள் பெட்டொழுகும் பேதைமை ஞாலத்து
அறம்பொருள் கண்டார்கண் இல்.

பேதைமை means folly, ignorance, the witlessness of one who cannot tell right from wrong (from பேதை, a simpleton). Valluvar names the desire for another's spouse not as sin first but as பேதைமை — stupidity. English 'folly' is close, but பேதைமை carries the flat verdict of foolishness, deflating the grand feelings such desire claims for itself: it is, at bottom, just not knowing better.

பிறப்பென்னும் பேதைமை நீங்கச் சிறப்பென்னும்
செம்பொருள் காண்ப தறிவு

Pētaimai means ignorance or folly here specifically as avidyā, the doctrinal cause of rebirth—not intellectual disability.

பொய்யாமை யன்ன புகழில்லை யெய்யாமை
யெல்லா வறமுந் தரும்.

பொய்யாமை is the settled practice of not lying. It yields lasting esteem without a display of self-denial.

ஒன்றாக நல்லது கொல்லாமை மறறதன்
பின்சாரப் பொய்யாமை நன்று

பொய்யாமை means not lying or departing from truth. It is honoured highly while remaining second to non-killing.

பொருளல் லவற்றைப் பொருளென் றுணரு
மருளானா மாணாப் பிறப்பு

Here maruḷ means philosophically inverted understanding, not mental illness or neurodivergence.

பொருளானா மெல்லாமென் றீயா திவறு
மருளானா மாணாப் பிறப்பு.

மருள் (maruḷ) — a bewilderment, a mind gone astray. Not stupidity and not greed exactly: the state of a man who has reasoned his way to a conclusion about money and can no longer see past it.

மனநலத்தி னாகு மறுமைமற் றஃது
மினநலத்தி னேமாப் புடைத்து

மறுமை (maṟumai) means ‘the life or state beyond this life.’ Here it names the future-life good in Parimelazhagar's theological reading, not an experimentally proven outcome.

மனையாளை யஞ்சு மறுமை யிலாளன்
வினையாண்மை வீறெய்த லின்று.

Maṟumai means the other world or life after death. Parimelazhagar calls the wife-fearing man one who lacks its benefit, making the claim explicitly religious as well as patriarchal. This belief must be represented, not universalized: a person living under coercive control is not spiritually deficient and deserves safety rather than judgement.

எப்பொருளு மோரார் தொடரார்மற் றப்பொருளை
விட்டக்காற் கேட்க மறை.

மறை is a matter intentionally kept from general hearing until the responsible holder chooses to disclose it.

அறைபறை யன்னர் கயவர்தாங் கேட்ட
மறைபிறர்க் குய்த்துரைக்க லான்.

மறை (maṟai) — that which is concealed; a secret. From the verb மறைத்தல், to hide. The word is doing a definitional job here that is easy to walk past. It does not mean information that happens to be unknown; it means something held back on purpose, by someone, for a reason. That is what makes the passing on a breach rather than a mere leak — there was an intention behind the concealment, and repeating it overrides that intention. It is worth knowing that மறை is also the Tamil word for the Vedas, the texts called that precisely because they were withheld from most people. Both senses run on the same idea: something kept back, and rightly or wrongly, kept back by a decision.

மனத்துக்கண் மாசிலன் ஆதல் அனைத்தறன்
ஆகுல நீர பிற

மனம் means 'mind' or 'heart' — the inner seat of thought and intent. The verse says virtue is 'மனத்துக்கண் மாசிலன் ஆதல்' — being stainless in the மனம். English splits mind (thinking) from heart (feeling); மனம் holds both, the whole inner ground from which action springs. Parimelazhagar's point is that an act from an unclean மனம் isn't virtue at all, however good it looks — which is why this single word carries the verse.

படைகொண்டார் நெஞ்சம்போல் நன்றூக்கா தொன்ற
னுடற்சுவை யுண்டார் மனம்

மனம் means the mind or heart that pays attention and chooses. In this Kural its direction matters, and that direction can be gently turned toward care.

சிறப்பீனுஞ் செல்வம் பெறினும் பிறர்க்கின்னா
செய்யாமை மாசற்றார் கோள்

மாசற்றார் means ‘those without stain.’ Their purity is shown as a firm refusal to obtain even splendid wealth by causing pain to another.

மருவுக மாசற்றார் கேண்மையொன் றீத்து
மொருவுக வொப்பிலார் நட்பு.

Mācaṟṟār means people without stain or blame in the relevant conduct. It describes accountable action, not perfect human beings or privileged social identity.

படியுடையார் பற்றமைந்தக் கண்ணு மடியுடையார்
மாண்பய னெய்த லரிது.

மாண்பயன் is not any small gain. It is the worthy or excellent benefit that available wealth ought to produce when it is actually used.

மனைவிழைவார் மாண்பய னெய்தார் வினைவிழைவார்
வேண்டாப் பொருளு மது.

Māṇpayaṉ means a noble or excellent benefit. Parimelazhagar identifies it here with virtue as a person's finest support. The original denies that benefit to a man governed by desire for his wife; an equality-safe response asks whether any relationship has displaced one's ethical judgement, never whether a spouse was respectfully heard.

இகலிற் கெதிர்சாய்த லாக்க மதனை
மிகலூக்கி னூக்குமாங் கேடு.

Mikal here means deliberately carrying hostility further or making it exceed its present level.

இகல்காணா னாக்கம் வருங்கா லதனை
மிகல்காணுங் கேடு தரற்கு.

Mikal means magnifying hostility—choosing to make opposition larger than it was.

மற்றுந் தொடர்ப்பா டெவன்கொல் பிறப்பறுக்க
லுற்றார்க் குடம்பு மிகை

மிகை: உடம்பும் மிகை means even the body is excess for this purpose. The force of the line makes every external attachment still less defensible.

ஒலித்தக்கா லென்னா முவரி யெலிப்பகை
நாக முயிர்ப்பக் கெடும்.

மிகை is deliberate exaggeration. A sea-roaring mouse army and a cobra's single breath make the power difference enormous on purpose.

கடிதோச்சி மெல்ல வெறிக நெடிதாக்க
நீங்காமை வேண்டு பவர்.

மெல்ல describes carrying out punishment without excess after a severe-looking start. In adult authority, it means that the warning may be firm while the actual fee or restriction remains carefully measured.

யானோக்குங் காலை நிலனோக்கு நோக்காக்காற்
றானோக்கி மெல்ல நகும்.

மெல்ல means softly, slightly, without force. It tells us the smile in this couplet is faint and unhurried — small enough to be missed by anyone who is not paying attention.

குறிப்பிற் குறிப்புணர் வாரை யுறுப்பினுள்
யாது கொடுத்துங் கொளல்.

யாது means ‘whatever’ or ‘which thing’. It leaves the reward open: the important question is what fitting resource will secure and support the perceptive helper.

இன்மையி னின்னாத தியாதெனி னின்மையி
னின்மையே யின்னா தது.

யாது (yātu) — 'what?' Older Tamil asked with this word where today we say என்ன. This small word is what turns the first line into a question: somebody is asking what could possibly be worse. Parimelazhagar treats it as a real question, not a flourish, because he expands the word beside it into என்று வினவின், 'if one enquires'. And the answer that comes back does not bring a new thing. It brings the same thing again.

தீயினாற் சுட்ட புண் உள்ளாறும் ஆறாதே
நாவினாற் சுட்ட வடு.

வடு means a scar — a mark that stays after the wound itself is gone. Valluvar sets it against புண் (a wound that heals): the fire leaves a புண், the tongue a வடு. English 'scar' is exact, but the verse's power is in the contrast the two Tamil words carry — one fades, one is permanent — so வடு becomes the very emblem of the harm words do.

உடுப்பதூஉமுண்பதூஉங் காணிற் பிறர்மேல்
வடுக்காண வற்றாகுங் கீழ்.

வடு (vaṭu) — a blemish; a scar, a mark left on a surface. The word is physical before it is moral, and that is what makes it work here. A வடு is something you point at. It is on the object, not in the eye of the person looking, which is exactly the claim being made whenever a fault of this kind is produced. Parimelazhagar's phrase does the damage: வடு இல்லையாகவும் உண்டாக்க வல்லனாம், able to produce one even where there is none. That வல்லன், able, is the coldest word in the couplet — this is described as a competence. In present-day Tamil வடு still carries its plain sense of a scar on the skin, which keeps the metaphor legible: a mark that was not there before, now visible on somebody.

உலைவிடத் தூறஞ்சா வன்கண் டொலைவிடத்துத்
தொல்படைக் கல்லா லரிது.

வன்கண்மை here is the hardiness to remain steady when a smaller force and strained leadership face real harm. It does not mean cruelty or hiding distress.

அழிவின் றறைபோகா தாகி வழிவந்த
வன்க ணதுவே படை

வன்கண்மை here is durable hardiness preserved through institutional continuity, joining survival with resistance to corruption.

ஏரின் உழாஅர் உழவர் புயல்என்னும்
வாரி வளங்குன்றிக் கால்

An abundant water-source or yield. The verse treats rain as the water-wealth on which cultivation draws.

வாரி பெருக்கி வளம்படுத் துற்றவை
யாராய்வான் செய்க வினை.

வாரி (vāri) here means the channels through which revenue comes in. It points beyond a single sum of money to the sources that keep supplying it; in this context it does not mean rain or water.

நன்றிக்கு வித்தாகும் நல்லொழுக்கம் தீயொழுக்கம்
என்றும் இடும்பை தரும்.

வித்து (vittu) is seed: a beginning that becomes a cause of later fruit. Here the fruit spans virtue or sin and both this life and the next.

அவாவென்ப வெல்லா வுயிர்க்குமெஞ் ஞான்றுந்
தவாஅப் பிறப்பீனும் வித்து

வித்து is a seed: a small generative cause whose effect continues beyond the moment in which it is planted. The image gives desire causal fertility, not merely emotional intensity.

விரைந்து தொழில்கேட்கு ஞால நிரந்தினிது
சொல்லுதல் வல்லார்ப் பெறின்.

விரைந்து is the visible speed that follows a well-ordered explanation; speed is the result, not the only goal.

எற்றிற் குரியர் கயவரொன் றுற்றக்கால்
விற்றற் குரியர் விரைந்து.

விரைந்து (viraintu) — quickly, in haste. An entirely ordinary word, still in daily use, and it is the last word of the chapter. That position is doing everything. Without it the line would say that the base sell themselves when trouble comes, which is a thing almost anybody might do under enough pressure and would not be worth a hundred and eight chapters of care. With it, the claim narrows to something exact and much harder to escape: not that they did it, but that it was the first thing available, arriving before the situation had even settled. And a thing that comes to hand that fast was not made in the moment. It was already there. Valluvar ends a chapter about hidden character on a word about timing, because timing is the one part of a person's interior that shows on the outside.

வேண்டாமை யன்ன விழுச்செல்வ மீண்டில்லை
யாண்டுமஃதொப்ப தில்

விழுச்செல்வம் means excellent wealth: a freedom measured by non-dependence on craving, not by an empty bank account.

கேடில் விழுச்செல்வங் கல்வி யொருவற்கு
மாடல்ல மற்றை யவை

விழுச்செல்வம் means distinguished or excellent wealth, praising education without ranking people by credentials or income.

வினைக்கண் வினைகெட லோம்பல் வினைக்குறை
தீர்ந்தாரிற் றீர்ந்தன் றுலகு.

வினை is the work or undertaking you have accepted. It includes the meaningful finish that lets what you did remain safe and useful for the next person.

இன்பம் விழையான் வினைவிழைவான் றன்கேளிர்
துன்பந் துடைத்தூன்றுந் தூண்.

வினை is the purposeful task that changes a real difficulty. For a child it should be a safe, agreed, age-appropriate part—not the whole weight of a family's suffering.

எனைப்பகை உற்றாரும் உய்வர் வினைப்பகை
வீயாது பின்சென்று அடும்.

வீயாது means ‘without leaving, ceasing, or falling away’. Its negative ending gives the pursuing image continuity. In modern use, the point is that the harmful deed's trace is not erased merely by exiting the scene—not that a teen is doomed forever or unable to repair.

தீயவை செய்தார் கெடுதல் நிழல்தன்னை
வீயாது அடியுறைந் தற்று.

வீயாது means ‘not leaving or falling away’. In the shadow comparison, it holds the shadow to the person before ‘settling at the feet’. For a child, it says responsibility is not moved by hiding an object; it does not say hope, care, or the chance to repair will leave.

இணரெரி தோய்வன்ன வின்னா செயினும்
புணரின் வெகுளாமை நன்று

வெகுளாமை means being without anger or not acting from it. Here the word is praised even after a hurt that feels fierce and burning.

இரப்பான் வெகுளாமை வேண்டும் நிரப்பிடும்பை
தானேயுஞ் சாலுங் கரி.

வெகுளாமை (vekuḷāmai) — not growing angry. It is built as a negation: வெகுள், to be angry, with the ending that makes a verb into the name of its own absence, the way அறியாமை names not-knowing. Because the form names an absence rather than an action, what stands there is a state in which the anger has not arisen, and Parimelazhagar keeps it that way with வெகுளாது ஒழிதல் — a leaving off, not a covering over. He also sets down, separately, the sentence that would let the anger in if it were admitted: இவன் எனக்கு ஈகின்றிலன், this man is not giving me. That is the sentence the word is placed against.

குணமென்னும் குன்றேறி நின்றார் வெகுளி
கணமேயுங் காத்த லரிது

Anger or wrath. The commentary specifies its very short duration, but does not redefine it as ordinary calm correction.

காமம் வெகுளி மயக்க மிவைமூன்ற
னாமங் கெடக்கெடு நோய்

வெகுளி: வெகுளி is anger as one of three binding roots. Its cessation is joined to the ending of desire and delusion, not demanded as an isolated performance.

இறலீனும் எண்ணாது வெஃகின் விறலீனும்
வேண்டாமை என்னும் செருக்கு.

வேண்டாமை means 'not-wanting,' the state of desiring nothing (negative of வேண்டு, to want). Valluvar crowns it a செருக்கு — a proud wealth — that wins 'victory over all.' English needs 'wantlessness' or 'desirelessness'; the Tamil frames it not as a lack but as a possession and a strength, the chapter's final reversal: the one who wants nothing has, in effect, everything.

வேண்டுங்கால் வேண்டும் பிறவாமை மற்றது
வேண்டாமை வேண்ட வரும்

வேண்டாமை means not wanting or desirelessness. It is not numbness. It is the condition through which non-birth can arise.