Page:The Kural or The Maxims Of Tiruvalluvar.pdf/52

 condemnation of the eating of meat (Ch. 26). On the other hand, neither Shiva nor Vishnu nor any other God of the Hindu pantheon is by name spoken of as the supreme God anywhere in the book. The truth therefore appears to be that in whatever persuasion Tiruvalluvar had been born, he freed himself from the trammels of all sects and worked his way up to the Illuminated Existence of the Yôgin for whom there are no persuasions or sects or religions, but only Truth and Wisdom and Joy.

A few words on the verse of the Kural will not be deemed out of place here though this book is mainly intended for readers who are unacquainted with Tamil. The title of the book itself indicates to the Tamil reader the verse in which it is written. For the word Kural means only a short rhymed couplet, the first line of which is composed of four feet and the second of three feet. The last foot of the first line or the first foot of the second line should rhyme with the first foot of the first line. The ability with which the poet manages Rh