Tiruvalluvar was one of the greatest Tamil poets, famous for the Tirukural, his comprehensive ethical manual in the form of 1,330 couplets, offering sagely but pragmatic advice on every conceivable aspect of human life. Very little is known conclusively about the life of Tiruvalluvar. In Tamil tradition, he is believed to have lived some time during the 1st millennium AD. While most scholars place him between 100 and 300 AD, a few believe he lived around 600 A.D. He is said to have been a textile weaver, born to Adi and Bhagavan, who led an austere life. He was a poet, thinker, philosopher, saint and teacher. Vasuki was the name of his devoted wife.
The term Tiru is the Tamil term of respect, equivalent to the Sanskrit Sri. This prefix of respect coupled with his supposed name Valluvan (the variation Valluvar is a mark of respect, part of the Tamil honorific system reserved for elders
and the great), led to the name by which he is referred to today.The name Valluvan could have referred to his caste or occupation and was in all probability not his given name.
Legends abound about the birthplace of Tiruvalluvar. According to one he is said to have been born and lived in Mylapore, an ancient part of present day Chennai city, where the Kapaleeswarar temple is located. Another legend associates him with Madurai, the ancient capital of the Pandya rulers. According to folklore, Valluvar introduced the Kural to the world in Madurai’s Tamil Sangam, at a conference of eminent scholars and researchers regularly conducted by the Pandyas for long years.Though Tiruvalluvar is revered as a Hindu saint, there are also accounts of his having been a Jain. Tiruvalluvar was himself perhaps unconcerned about whether he was a follower of the Vedas or of Mahavira, and like his book, ignored the artificial boundaries between religions.
The Tirukural is often described as an “Eternal Truth”. It is one of the oldest and most revered works in the Tamil language. It consists of 133 adhikarams or chapters. Each adhikaram consists of 10 kurals. Each kural is a couplet.
The short pithy couplets are primarily in the form of maxims. These are divided into three main sections. Virtue (Arathuppal), wealth (Porutpal) and love (Kamathuppal). But the subject matter ranges far wider than these titles suggest. It covers for example, such things as gambling, espionage, medicine, folly and military forts. There is very little abstract philosophizing or reference to the transcendental.