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Tirukkural-On Virtue-On The Blessing Of Children-Kural 6 3

By Staff

Tamporul enpadham makkal; avarporul
Taththam vinaiyaan varum

A man's children are his real wealth; and their own worth
Is assessed by their correct conduct and good name.


The idea here is that, while a man's wealth are his children, their worth will be determined by their own actions.

V.v.s Iyer refers to this couplet as a very knotty one, probably because of the juxtaposition of two different ideas and the interpretation of the word 'porul' in two ways in the same Kural. Actually 'porul' in the first portion means wealth, while 'porul' in the next refers to their 'worth'.

But this is not really so strange when we consider usage in Tamil literature such as the following:

Pon potr pudhalvarp pera adheerum
Ponpotr pudhalvanodu

Obviously both the ideas of wealth and worth are together involved in the comparison of the children to gold.

Story first published: Friday, November 28, 2008, 16:37 [IST]