The Kural or the Maxims of Tiruvalluvar/Chapter 105
CHAPTER 105
INDIGENCE
1041. Wantest thou to know what is more galling than indigence ? then know that indigence alone is more galling than indigence.
1042. Caitiff Indigence is an enemy to the joys of this life as well as of the next.
1043. The itching that goeth by the name of Indigence killeth dignity of demeanour and refinement of speech, even though they run in the very blood.
1044. Want will drive even men of high family to forget their dignity and to speak the language of abject servility.
1045. There are a thousand mortifications concealed underneath this one curse called poverty.
1046. The words of the indigent will carry no weight even when they expound grand truths with masterly skill and knowledge.
1047. The poverty that is divorced from virtue will estrange even the mother that bore him from the side of the miserable wretch.
1048. Is Indigence to bear me company even to-day ? It tormented me but only yesterday even unto death.[1]
1049. It is possible to go to sleep even in the midst of flames: but it is impossible to get even a wink of sleep in the midst of poverty.
1050. The one way open to the indigent is to renounce utterly, their lives: their not doing so is but death to salt and rice-water.[2]
