Tirukkural-On Virtue - In Praise Of Rain - Kural - 16

1. Visumpin thuliveelin allaamar raangae
   pasumpul thalai kaanpararidhu

If the clouds do not shed drops of rain, even
blades of grass cannot shoot up..

The blades of grass are one of the lowest forms of plant life. Even these cannot sustain unless the rains fall, what then about the higher forms of life and man himself?

The extreme importance and usefulness of rain is again referred to in Kural 211, in the chapter on 'Opuravu' Benevolence..

Kaimaaru veindaa kadapaadu maarimaatu
Yennaatrung kollo ulagu

In this couplet the benevolent man's spontaneous service to society is compared to the rain clouds which pour forth rain on to this earth without expecting any return. When they withhold their bounty we know what happens to the drought-affected areas. The land gets parched and even the grass will not grow. That is the extent of the importance of rain, the bounty of which is easily forgotten.