The Thirukkural couplets written in Brahmi Tamizhi script is a sensational effort
Posted on: 12/Dec/2018 10:46:57 AM
Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar was responsible for authoring Thirukkural and this Thirukkural is regarded as the finest works of Tamil literature is well known. It is a collection of couplets on ethics, politics, love etc and for many years this Thirukkural has been attracting the attention of many. IITS or International Institute for Tamil Studies in Taramani, Chennai was started in the year 1970 for the purpose of Tamil research and it is a wing of Tamil Development department of state government.
The latest news that has come out is this IITS has brought out a new edition of Thirukkural couplets written in ‘Brahmi Tamizhi’ script. It must be taken into account that this script was the trend in during the times of saint Thiruvalluvar. On Tuesday, 11th December 2018, Tamil Nadu chief minister grabbed the attention of many in the secretariat when he released the book brought out by IITS.
Mr. G. Vijayaraghavan, director of Tamil Development department and director in-charge of IITS expressed his views. He spoke about the importance of Thirukkural in the form as written by the saint Thiruvalluvar. It is known that IITS displays all the aspects of ancient literature. The director in-charge spoke about how the people visiting the Thirukkural exhibition at the IITS wanted to see Thirukkural in the form written by Thiruvalluvar some 2000 years ago. Not only people but the researchers also wanted to see Thirukkural in the script that was prevalent during the period of saint Thiruvalluvar. He finally appreciated the efforts taken by the IITS in bringing out this unique volume of Thirukkural in Brahmi Tamizhi script.
One important piece of information is for the sake of common people, the complete set of Brahmi Tamizhi letters with their present Tamil equivalents has been provided. This would be of huge help for both people as well as researchers. Mr. Vijayaraghavan later highlighted about how any inscription with these scripts found by people in their places could be deciphered to probable meaning and be saved. This book might serve as primer of Brahmi Tamizhi also.
It is tremendous that translation of ‘Thirukkural’ has been done in ancient Tamil script now by the researchers in IITS. In the past translation was done in many Indian as well as foreign languages are known. He heaped praises on archaeologists K. Kulandaivelan and C. Vasanthi who played their part efficiently in guiding the experts to write all Thirukkural couplets in ancient Brahmi Tamizhi script. It must not be forgotten that in the past Thirukkural was published in ancient script but they were not completely written in Brahmi Tamizhi script. Now by writing fully in the ancient script IITS has fulfilled that with great effort.
The superb point is under each Thirukkural couplet, the present form of Thirukkural is provided with English translation for understanding and this would benefit those who buy this book. Many readers of this book would be surprised to find various scripts that are prevalent in different parts of India as these scripts have been elaborated by the archaeologists cum writers.
