K. Vadivelu Chettiar (1863–1936) was a

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

scholar of the early twentieth century. He is best known for his exegesis on the

Parimelalhagar Parimelalhagar (), sometimes spelled Parimelazhagar, born Vanduvarai Perumal, was a Tamil poet and scholar known for his commentary on the ''Thirukkural''. He was the last among the canon of ten medieval commentators of the Kural text most hi ...

's commentary to the

Tirukkural The ''Tirukkuṟaḷ'' (), or shortly the ''Kural'' (), is a classic Tamil language text on commoner's morality consisting of 1,330 short couplets, or Kural (poetic form), kurals, of seven words each. The text is divided into three books wit ...

Biography

Chettiar was born in 1863 and was a merchant in

Chintadripet Chintadripet (originally Chinna Thari Pettai) is a locality in Chennai, in India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by ...

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

, where he was running a grocery store selling cigars. His interest in the

Tamil language Tamil (, , , also written as ''Tamizhil'' according to linguistic pronunciation) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. It is one of the longest-surviving classical languages in the world,. "Tamil is one of ...

and literature was kindled by the Tamil scholar Ramanuja Naicker who was one of his regular customers. Soon Chettiar launched into a regular exposition of Tamil literary works at his grocery store, absorbing several stanzas of Tamil poetry recited by Naicker while smoking his cigar. Soon he lost interest in his family vocation and instead took to studying Tamil from various scholars under the guise of purchasing provisions from the Kothawal Chavadi market in the city. This made him pursue a career as a Tamil pundit in the Hindu Theological Society High School. Eventually, he emerged as one of the greatest scholars of his time. In 1904, he published his work on the Tirukkural, which included, along with his own commentary, notes of medieval commentator

Parimelazhagar Parimelalhagar (), sometimes spelled Parimelazhagar, born Vanduvarai Perumal, was a Tamil language, Tamil poet and scholar known for his Literary criticism, commentary on the ''Thirukkural''. He was the last among the canon of Ten Medieval Comm ...

. With his knowledge in Sanskrit literature, he had also quoted from works such as

Bhagavad Gita The Bhagavad Gita (; ), often referred to as the Gita (), is a Hindu texts, Hindu scripture, dated to the second or first century BCE, which forms part of the Hindu epic, epic poem Mahabharata. The Gita is a synthesis of various strands of Ind ...

, the

Upanishads The Upanishads (; , , ) are late Vedic and post-Vedic Sanskrit texts that "document the transition from the archaic ritualism of the Veda into new religious ideas and institutions" and the emergence of the central religious concepts of Hind ...

, and the

Manusmriti The ''Manusmṛti'' (), also known as the ''Mānava-Dharmaśāstra'' or the Laws of Manu, is one of the many legal texts and constitutions among the many ' of Hinduism. Over fifty manuscripts of the ''Manusmriti'' are now known, but the earli ...

. The work was praised by contemporary scholars including U. Ve. Swaminatha Iyer,

Maraimalai Adigal Maraimalai Adigal (15 July 1876 – 15 September 1950) was a Tamil Saivite writer, orator and father of the Tanittamil Iyakkam movement. He authored more than 100 books, including works on original poems and dramas and notable research works o ...

, Vaiyapuri Pillai, Ra. Raghava Iyengar, Thiru Vi Ka and Mu. Varadarajan. The book was republished in 1919 by Chettiyar's disciple T. P. Meenakshisundaram with his own English renderings. Chettiar had also published his notes for Sivagnana Bodham with his own commentary. Chettiar died in 1936. In 2015, Chettiar's Tirukkural translation was republished in two volumes running into 2,500 pages.

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References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chettiar, K. Vadivelu 1863 births 1936 deaths Scholars from Tamil Nadu Indian Tamil people Tamil scholars Tirukkural commentators Translators of the Tirukkural into English

Biography

See also

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