What is new at Double-V?

Date: 05-09-2009. While my intention is to upload complete translations of Tirukkural in various languages available to me, it fails to workout that way oftentimes. The electronic conversion of the Bengali translation came to a standstill as Sangeeta Samir, who volunteered to help in this cause, backed out. My venture into Telugu translation has also ended up on a similar note, with the project coming to a halt after the completion of a mere seven chapters. Mr. Subramaniya Rallabandi, a former employee of the Wildlife Trust of India, willingly undertook the responsibility of typing one chapter a day. The project came to a halt as he left the organization so too early. The first seven chapters have been uploaded. The translation is that of Gurucharan.

Date: 28-06-2009. We do not know much about the life of Thiruvalluvar as much we know about Thirukkural. Like the authors of most celebrated work in India, he has remained hidden behind his work. What we all know about Thiruvalluvar's life is hagiographical. Even if we are to establish his religious identity, the task has proved to be a difficult and controversial one. The secular nature of his work has only lead  people of various religious groups claiming the Kural to be a work of their religious affiliation. The only reliable document we have with us to know anything about Thiruvalluvar is his work Thirukkural. I have been harping over the religious background of Valluvar for almost a decade now and I have presented all my views of the religious affiliation of Thirukkural in the long drawn out essay Jaina Ideas in Thirukkural.

Date: 15-06-2009. Fijian may be a minority language but the Kural has seen two translations so far, with more than 40 years of interval between the two. The first one came in 1964 and the latest one is a 2008 publication. The latest one is translated by Dr. Paul Geraghty, a well known scholar in Fijian language. I have great pleasure in presenting this entire work to Fijian readers. Click here for the introduction in Fijian and the contents for the translations.

Date: 17-05-2009. I had in the past uploaded selected verses of Tirukkural translations in Italian, Hungarian and Polish - picked up from various sites on the internet. I keep finding out more and more verses, especially in Polish and Italian. I have now categorized them under the various chapter headings and uploaded expanded versions of the Tirukkural translations in Italian and Polish.

Date: 06-01-2009.

Though Sanskrit is a dead language, it continues to receive the attention of many scholars as it is the primary language of revelation for the Hindus. "Sanskrit is the language of God" said Swami Vivekananda (Complete Works, III 513) which is not an exaggeration considering the vast amount of religious literatures it commands, not only in Hinduism but also in Jainism and Buddhism. Thirukkural has been translated into Sanskrit, the one being uploaded here is that of S.N. Sriramadesikan, a great scholar in Sanskrit who has translated many Tamil classics into this sacred language. Enjoy the first ever online text of the Kural in Sanskrit (तिरुक्कुरळ्- संस्कृतानुवाद्) in full.

Date: 11-10-2008.

I have uploaded introductions to Tirukkural in 12 languages so far. With the addition of an introduction in Kannada (ತಿರುವಳ್ಳುವರು / ತಿರುಕ್ಕುರಳ್), the list has now grown to 13. Though uploading of Tirukkural in Kannada began in April 2006, it has taken more than two years to find a suitable introduction. While the translation of the couplets are those of P.S. Srinivasa whose work got published in 1982 (Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai), the introduction uploaded here belongs to K. Jayaraman who also translated the Kural in 2001 (Bharati Publications, Mysore).

Date: 13-07-2008.

A new section on "Comparative Religion" has been initiated. This will contain some of the original essays on comparative religion I have been writing since 2001. Soon I intend to start a separate section on "Comparative Literature" but this will take some time as I am occupied with so many other responsibilities as well. The first two articles or essays uploaded under "Comparative Religion" include "Islamic and Saivite mysticism" and  "From Bodh Gaya to Chidambaram: A journey through the cosmic centres of Buddhists and Saivites".

Date: 27-04-2008.

Thirukkural has been translated into almost all Indian major languages. Bengali or Bangla alone has seen at leat four translations, the recent known to me is by Krishnamoorthy who translated the Kural in Bengali verse. The contents page and the first 10 chapters of the translation has been uploaded. Thanks to Ms. Sangeeta Samir of Calcutta who volunteered to get the entire 1330 couplets typed in Bangla unicode. Without the contribution of such helping hands, I won't be able to realize my long cherished dream of presenting the Kural in 30 languages.

Date: 01-03-2008.

The latest addition to the list of Tirukkural translations online is the Sinhalese translation by Govokgada Misihamy who translated the Kural in 1961. Thanks to Deepani Jayantha with whose help I could get hold of a copy of Misihamy's translation "Thiruvalluvar's Kural".

Date: 01-06-2007.

The complete translation of Thirukkural in Marathi has been uploaded. The only Marathi translation known to me is that of Sane Guruji, published in 1948 from Pune. Sane Guruji, a popular writer and great patriot, translated the Kural in 1930 while he was a political prisoner in the Tiruchirappalli jail (Joshi, 1973).

Date: 01-05-2007.

Though Thirukkural might have been translated into Konkani as fragments here and there, it was only in 2002 that a complete translation of Thirukkural in Konkani was published. Translator N. Purushothama Mallaya, Secretary of the Konkani Bhasha Sabha, Kochi was inspired to take up the translation at the behest of late Ka. Naa. Subramanyam, the well known Tamil scholar who authored many works including the Bharatiya Jnanpith publication "Tiruvalluvar and his Tirukkural".

Date: 01-04-2006.

The first and probably the only translation of Tirukkural into Konkani language is being uploaded. To begin with, the contents page, introduction and first ten chapters have been uploaded. The translator is N. Purushothama Mallaya who got it published through the Konkani Bhasha Prachar Sabha, Kochi in the year 2002.

The remaining chapters of Tirukkural in Kannada has also been uploaded. With this the task of uploading the entire Tirukkural in Kannada language is over.

Date: 25-05-2006.

There are at least three translations of Thirukkural into Latin. The most popular and the most easily available one is that of Father Beschi, whose translation in the year 1730 happened to be the first ever translation of Tirukkural into an European language. Beschi translated only the first two divisions: Virtue and Wealth. This entire translation is now available for the first time on the net.

Date: 18-04-2006.

There are many translations of Tirukkural in English available on the net. I didn't want to repeat the exercise by uploading one more, be it from a different author. While going through different translations, I found some translations to be more impressive than others, and at the same time found good translations of few couplets scattered amongst some average and mediocre translations. Therefore I decided to compare 25 different works, 15 of which were translations and 10 were scattered translations found in books and articles written on Thirukkural and Thiruvalluvar. It is all there at this link. 

Date: 10-09-2005.

Continuing with the task of presenting Tirukkural in the remaining languages, parts of a Kannada translation have been uploaded (Contents: ಅಂತರಂಗ). Only the first 20 chapters of the first division Virtue (ಧರ್ಮ ಭಾಗ), the first 20 chapters of the second division Wealth (ಅರ್ಥ ಭಾಗ) and the first 10 chapters of the third division Love (ಕಾಮ ಭಾಗ) have been uploaded. The remaining chapters will be on line by October 2006.

Date: 04-08-2005.

After more than four years after uploading the summary of 133 mathematical 'miracles' from Tirukkural, I have had the time to upload some of the different chapters listed in table of Contents. Chapter 3. Why number seven for Kural? and Chapter 4. Orientation to the analysis have been uploaded.

Date: 05-07-2005.

Thirukkural translations in Malayalam (മലയാളം) and Arabic (العربيه) have been uploaded. (കുറള, تِروكـُّـرل). Translations of  Latin (Latina), Polish (Polski) and Kannada (ಕನ್ನಡ) are in the pipeline, while that of Bangla (বাংলা), Urdu (اردو), Gujarati (ગુજરાતી) and Telugu (తెలుగు) are yet to be converted to electronic texts. The names of the translators and their publications chosen for this exercise have been presented here.

Date: 14-06-2005.  

(1) For the first time on the internet, Tirukkural translations have been presented in different languages of the world. The purpose is to disseminate the maxims of Thiruvalluvar and enable it reach all corners of the world in the respective tongues. A humble beginning has been made to this mammoth task by displaying the Kural in four languages – namely French (Français), Russian (Русский) and Hindi (हिन्दी) (Tirou Koural, Тируккурал, तिरुक्कुरळ).

(2) Also being uploaded are two special articles on Translating the Kural and ‘An introduction to the Kural and its author

(3) An introductory note has been given to all the 30 odd language translations to be presented here. These short introductory notes, currently elaborate only for French, Russian, Hindi and Malayalam, will be expanded whenever the translations of other languages are uploaded.

Date: 04-06-2005.  

(1) The home page has been replaced with a new one. Topics have been changed and brought under four divisions: Introduction, Claims and Criticisms, Vivekananda and Valluvar. The topics under Vivekananda are under preparation and will soon be uploaded.

(2) A TSCII font “Thunaivan” was used for articles under mathematical miracle in Kural. The Tamil texts in these articles have been now replaced with UNICODE [*],[*].

(3) Two new articles have been uploaded under “Claims and Criticisms”. The first one Muhammad and Jesus in Hindu Scriptures and the other one on the concept of hell in Hinduism. Both are in response to Mr. Andersons article which is a response to the claims of Arvindaksha Menon and Vidyarthi on Jesus and Muhammad in Hindu Scriptures.

Date: 29-03-2001.  

(1) Many works have been published, comparing the Thirukkural of Thiruvalluvar with other classics of the world. The maxims of Valluvar have been compared with Bible (particularly Proverbs), with Confucian sayings, with Qur'an, with Baghvad Gita and many other ethical works of Indian origin. Yet no attempt has been made to present a collection of comparable or parallel quotations from various sources, particularly with Scriptures of the world. At the ForumHub discussion forum, I am posting one couplet a day under "Valluvar and Others" with exciting sayings of similar nature from the Bible, Dhammapada, Hadith, Hitopadesa, Lun Yu, Dao De Jing, and the works of  many poets and geniuses like Khalil Gibran, Swami Vivekananda, John Milton etc.

(2) Submitters believe that the challenge to produce a Sura found in the Qur'an has to do with the mathematical composition of the Suras or Verses and not with its literary eloquence as claimed by most Muslims. They have not only challenged others to produce a sura-like-it but also a verse-like-it. Click here to read the double standards employed by Submitters! Later I presented them a Counter Challenge, asking them produce a couplet of the nature found in Thirukkural

Date: 23-03-2001.  

(1) The main component of this site, Claims and Criticisms added to the site. The topics to be dealt here are the claims of mathematical miracles, the claims of prophecies of various religious founders, the claims of modern scientific facts in different scriptures, the criticisms of corruption of other scriptures and the claims of prophecies about Jesus and Muhammad in Hindu scriptures.

(2) The claims of amazing mathematical miracles from scriptures have been investigated in depth by different individuals to prove that methodology used to extract such 'miracles' from sacred texts is not consistent. However, very few authors have attempted to show that such 'miracles' can be found in non-religious texts as well. Here at Mathematical Miracles in Thirukkural, I have used Tirukkural, the Tamil classic of repute. The work is an ongoing process and I have, for the time being, published a summary of major findings. Please read the Preface section to get an insight into the purpose of this bizarre exercise!

(3) And lastly, chapters of similar nature to the Qur'an! One of the most common Muslim claims is that the Qur'an is a marvelous scripture of unparallel literary merit. They cite many verses from the Qur'an to show that God himself challenges people to produce at least a chapter of similar nature to the Qur'an. Here is the link to my list of SURAS-LIKE-IT from other scriptures, published elsewhere.

Date: 01-01-2001. The `Double-V' website was launched on this date. The main page, and pages explaining `What is Double-V?' were uploaded. Also uploaded were small write ups on the purpose of launching this site & a list of forthcoming articles


I Home I Claims & Criticisms I Purpose of this site I What is new here? I Forthcoming topics I
 I Comparative Religion I Gospel of Vivekananda I
I Kural in 30 languages I Mathematical mircale in Kural I Introduction to the Kural I Kural and Worldly Wisdom I