The Kural or the Maxims of Tiruvalluvar/Notes
NOTES
Note 1. Verse 5. According to the Hindus, the Buddhists and Jains, the subtle results of all the actions of a man accompany the soul after the death of the body, and are the cause of his being born again into the world. It is a misery to be born again and again as every new incarnation postpones the moment of supreme bliss. Good deeds done with attachment carry the germs of future birth as much as evil deeds. See Preface p. xviii et seq.
Note 2. Verse 9. The eight attributes are, (i) According to Shaiva theology: (1) Non-dependence on anything external, (2) Possession of a pure body, (3) Possession of uncreated intelligence, (4) Omniscience, (5) Capacity to transcend all bounds without exertion, (6) Infinite mercy, (7) Omnipotence, and (8) Unlimited joy ; and
(ii) According to Jain theology: (1) Infinite knowledge, (2) Infinite vision, (3) Infinite energy, (4) Infinite joy, (5) Indescribability, (6) Beginninglessness, (7) Agelessness, (8) Deathlessness.
Note 3. Verse 25. Indra was smitten with the charms of Ahalya, wife of sage Gautama. One morning when the sage was away he took the form of the sage, and pretending to be her husband he induced her to yield herself to his desire. On coming to know this the sage cursed Indra with a disgusting disease.
Note 4. Verse 30. Andana, the Tamil word for Brâhman means etymologically, he who has the beautiful quality of mercy.
Note 5. Verse 292. The falsehood that is contemplated in this verse is the untruth that even the most virtuous of men will not flinch from uttering when an innocent victim has to be rescued from death, cruelty, or dishonour about to be inflicted by ruffians, and there is no other means of saving him from the same.
Note 6. Verse 401. In the game of dice, as played in India, the pieces can be moved only on a chequered board. When there is no chequered board, whatever the scores, the pieces cannot be moved at all. Similarly, even if a man should have great and valuable ideas, he would be unable to order and regulate them in his discourse unless he has previously disciplined himself by study.
Note 7. Verse 774. The warrior is supposed not to have felt at all the pain caused by the enemy's spear. So he does not even know that it is still sticking in his body. When he notices it, instead of feeling the pain of the wound he is glad that he has got a spear handy to launch against his enemy.
Note 8. Verse 950. Parimèlajahar explains the attributes thus : the attributes of the patient are ability to disclose symptoms, strength to endure pain, ability to pay, and strict obedience to the directions of the physician; those of the physician are intelligence and study, courage to handle every disease, purity of thought, word, and deed, and good luck; those of the medicine are efficacy to cure many diseases, superior virtue on account of taste, power, strength, and effects, facility of being procured, and capacity to combine with other ingredients as well as food; and those of the apothecary are kindness and consideration to the anxiety of the patient, purity of thought, word, and deed, ability to compound drugs, and common sense.
Note 9. Verse 1184. The fancy seems to be something like this : As evil spirits are warded off by devotion accompanied by the uttering of the name of God, so it should have been possible to ward off pallor of the body by thinking of the beloved and uttering his praises. If, in spite of this, pallor should overspread her frame, there should be some witchcraft somewhere to nullify the effects of her endeavours to keep it at a distance. Parimelajahar gives a different explanation.
Note 10. Verse 1261. The artless simplicity of women is exaggerated by poets in a thousand ways. Here the wife is supposed to be unable to tell the number of days that have elapsed since the parting of the husband by means of a calendar or by memory. So she is described as making a mark on the wall for every day that has elapsed since his departure, and then counting the marks, touching them one by one with her fingers, whenever she wants to calculate the day of his return.
FINIS