Biography of Thiruvalluvar | Life and Period - Birthplace - Tirukkural - Philosophy and Teachings - Celebrations and Legacy of Thiruvalluvar
Biography of Thiruvalluvar: Thiruvalluvar, also known as Valluvar, was an Indian poet and philosopher. He is best known as the author of the Tirukkuṟaḷ, a collection of couplets on ethics, political and economic matters, and love. The text is considered an exceptional and widely cherished work of Tamil literature. Almost no authentic information is available about Valluvar’s life, and all major Indian religions, as well as Christian missionaries of the 19th century, have tried to claim him as secretly inspired or originally belonging to their tradition. According to Kamil Zvelebil, a scholar of Tamil literature, Valluvar was “probably a learned Jain with eclectic leanings and intimate acquaintance with the early works of Tamil classical period and some knowledge of the Sanskrit legal and didactic texts (subhashita)”. Traditional biographies suggest that he lived in the town of Mylapore (a neighbourhood of the present-day Chennai) and his floruit is dated variously from the fourth cen...