The Kural

the charm of love: and the charm of that again is the sweet embrace at its close.

Endnotes

1. The figures within brackets to this paragraph refer to chapters. Everywhere else in the preface they will refer to the number of the verse except where chapters are indicated by the letters Ch. ↩

2. In the transliteration of Tamil words occurring in the book, the letter j is italicised in order to indicate that it is to be pronounced as in French. ↩

3. According to the Hindus, the Buddhists and Jains, the subtle results of all the actions of a man accompany the soul after the death of the body, and are the cause of his being born again into the world. It is a misery to be born again and again as every new incarnation postpones the moment of supreme bliss. Good deeds done with attachment carry the germs of future birth as much as evil deeds. See here. ↩

4. The eight attributes are,

   1. According to Shaiva theology: (1) Non-dependence on anything external, (2) Possession of a pure body, (3) Possession of uncreated intelligence, (4) Omniscience, (5) Capacity to transcend all bounds without exertion, (6) Infinite mercy, (7) Omnipotence, and (8) Unlimited joy; and

   2. According to Jain theology: (1) Infinite knowledge, (2) Infinite vision, (3) Infinite energy, (4) Infinite joy, (5) Indescribability, (6) Beginninglessness, (7) Agelessness, (8) Deathlessness.

   ↩

5. Indra was smitten with the charms of Ahalya, wife of sage Gautama. One morning when the sage was away he took the form of the sage, and pretending to be her husband he induced her to yield herself to his desire. On coming to know this the sage cursed Indra with a disgusting disease. ↩

6. I.e. control their senses. ↩

7. I.e. who knows that they are transient and at the same time misleading, and who therefore endeavours to transcend them. ↩

8. Andana, the Tamil word for Brahman means etymologically, he who has the beautiful quality of mercy. ↩

9. It is the righteous deeds done in past births that have made the one the rider, and the unrighteous deeds done in the same past births that have made the other the bearer, of the palanquin. ↩

10. I.e. the student, the eremite, and the ascetic. ↩

11. Friend of the dead because he performs their obsequies. ↩

12. The Goddess of Prosperity. ↩

13. The Goddess of Fortune. ↩

14. The Genius of misery. ↩

15. The jingle is in the original. ↩

16. Austerities, self-mortification, and thought-concentration. ↩

17. Ether and the subtle principles of gaseousness, heat liquidity, and solidity. ↩

18. The falsehood that is contemplated in this verse is the untruth that even the most virtuous of men will not flinch from uttering when an innocent victim has to be rescued from death, cruelty, or dishonour about to be inflicted by ruffians, and there is no other means of saving him from the same. ↩

19. In the game of dice, as played in India, the pieces can be moved only on a chequered board. When there is no chequered board, whatever the scores, the pieces cannot be moved at all. Similarly, even if a man should have great and valuable ideas, he would be unable to order and regulate them in his discourse unless he has previously disciplined himself by study. ↩

20. Food is not to be thought of so long as there is instruction to listen to. ↩

21. Lust. ↩

22. Thy allies as well as those of thy enemy. ↩

23. I.e., even the most powerful king will succumb if he makes war with too many enemies at a time even if each of them should be despicable when alone. ↩

24. This is a warning to those princes who seek to embark on fresh enterprises after the utmost limit of their strength has been reached. ↩

25. Income. ↩

26. Expenditure. ↩

27. See Kauṭilya’s Arthashâstra, Part I Ch. 10 for those tests or upadhâs. ↩

28. The God Vishnu who in his incarnation as Trivikrama measured the whole universe in three strides. ↩

29. Lakshmi, the Goddess of Fortune. ↩

30. For he can go on with his enterprise without any fear or anxiety. ↩

31. I.e., righteousness and love. ↩

32. The warrior is supposed not to have felt at all the pain caused by the enemy’s spear. So he does not even know that it is still sticking in his body. When he notices it, instead of feeling the pain of the wound he is glad that he has got a spear handy to launch against his enemy. ↩

33. For it gives them an opportunity to show the depth of their love by pardoning the injury without uttering a word of reproach. ↩

34. An imaginary being that is believed to fascinate men in groves etc. and make them extremely erotic. ↩

35. The other two are the bile and the phlegm. ↩

36. Parimêlajahar explains the attributes thus: the attributes of the patient are ability to disclose symptoms, strength to endure pain, ability to pay, and strict obedience to the directions of the physician; those of the physician are intelligence and study, courage to handle every disease, purity of thought, word, and deed, and good luck; those of the medicine are efficacy to cure many diseases, superior virtue on account of taste, power, strength, and effects, facility of being procured, and capacity to combine