Tirukural-On Virtue-Family Life-Kural 43

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Thenpulathaar dheyvam virunthokkal, thaanenraangu
Aimpulathaaru ompal thalai

It is paramount for the householder to do his five-fold duty,
To his ancestors, his parents, guests, kindred and self.

A Good householder has a five-fold duty to perform, to his ancestors, his parents, guests, relations and finally to himself.

It was the accepted practice in the Tamil country those days, for a man's income to be divided into six parts, and one part of it to be fixed as the King's due. The other five were to be spent respectively on the five items above, as enunciated by Valluvar. Periapuranam also lists out these five categories to be looked after as follows:

Arasukol kadangalaatri miguthi kondarangal paeni
paravarum kadavutpotri kuravarum virundhum pinpin
viraviya kilayundh thaangi, vilangiya kudigal oangi
varaipurai maadam needimalarndhulla padhigal yengum.

The Holy Koran also says:

'That which ye spend for good (must go) to parents, near kindred, orphans, the needy and the way-farer. And whatsoever good ye do, lo, Allah is aware of it'.

The term 'Thenpulathaar' or occupants of the South is believed to refer to 'pitrus' or godly ancestors. But there is yet another interpretation based on the history of repeated cyclones and sea-erosions in the South of Tamil Nadu. According to this, it is the duty of the householder to look after those who have escaped from the destructive action of the tidal waves in the South but rendered homeless and helpless. This Kind of exhortation is not anything new or strange to us, considering that, apart from those who have suffered by repeated cyclones in places like Rameshwaram, people of Tamil Origin who have been driven out of lands where they had once settled and prospered and since uprooted, are also receiving special attention as repatriates, from the Government and people of Tamil Nadu now-Cf: Burma repatriates and Ceylon repatriates and others.