Thirukkural translations in different languages of the world
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Translating the Kural |
Viewing the Kural in all languages |
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The Tamil classic, Thirukkural (Sacred Couplets), has been translated into many major languages of the world. Attributed to Thiruvalluvar, who probably lived during the 2nd or 3rd century A.D., the Kural (as it is often referred) occupies a leading place amongst the wisdom literatures of the world. The popularity of the Kural amongst all ancient Tamil literatures can be judged from the fact that the next most translated work in Tamil comes no where near the Kural when compared to the number of times and number of languages the Kural has been translated. The Tamils believe that the Kural has been translated into most languages, next only to the Bible and the Qur’an. There are other texts with similar claims of having been translated several times in many languages.[1,2] The Hindus claim that their most popular scripture the Bhagavad Gita is the second most widely translated book after the Bible. It has been translated into at least 24 languages [*] and probably more. The Chinese claim that their classic Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu is the world’s most translated Book.[3] Victor Mair, a translator of Tao Te Ching, had this to say: "Next to the Bible and the Bhagavad Gita, the Tao Te Ching is the most translated book in the world".[4] Ninety one different translations of Tao Te Ching in 15 different languages (35 translations in English alone) are available at a single website on the net [*]. The Confucian Analects (Lun Yu) attributed Confucius has also been translated to many languages. More►►► |
So far complete translations of the Kural has been uploaded here in 13 languages, six Indian (Hindi, Malayalam and Kannada), four European (French, Russian, English and Latin) and three Asian (Arabic). Selections from four other languages (Hungarian, Polish, Italian and Bangla) have also been uploaded. Translations in Saurashtrian, Gujarati, Telugu, Chinese, Japanese, Oriya and Urdu have been procured and will be uploaded soon after word processing is complete. To make viewing compatible with all computer configurations, almost all the translations have been presented in Unicode. Where Unicode facility does not exist for a particular language, acrobat files have been uploaded.
You will not require any font for viewing the text in French and Russian. Viewing Hindi, Kannada, Bangla, Gujarati and Tamil texts been typed in Unicode should not be a problem if you are using Win2000 or Win-Xp as they have Unicode support. Win98 is not Unicode enabled. But you can read websites or web mails as long as you are using Internet Explorer version 5 or above. Whenever you find any difficulty in viewing Unicode based text, simply change encoding by selecting View >> Encoding >> Unicode (UTF-8) or right click and select Encoding >>Unicode (UTF-8). Linux has Unicode support. Sometimes this doesn’t work as I have seen it not working in many internet parlours in spite of having Windows 2000 and even XP! I think you need "Arial MS Unicode" – which comes along with Windows 2000 and XP –font installed in your computer. |
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Currently online in full.........
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References:
[1] Mahapatra, R. 1999. Translations of Tirukkural into English and other Indian languages – some aspects. In: On Translations. International Institute of Tamil Studies. Pp 51
[2] Ramasamy, V. 2001. On translating Tirukkural. International Institute of Tamil Studies, Tharamani, Chennai. Pp 29
[3] R.L. Wing, 1986. (Translator).
The Tao of Power. Double Day,
[4] Mair, V.H. 1990. Introduction and notes for a translation of the Ma-wang-tui manuscripts of the Lao Tzu (Old Master). Sino-Platonic Papers, 20. (http://spp.pinyin.info/abstracts/spp020_lao_tzu.html )