Tirukkural-On Virtue-Family Life-Kural 44

Paliyancip pattun utaittayin valkkai
valiyencal ennanrum it.

If one earns his wealth by shunning evil, and shares it with guests,
In virtuous hospitality, his line will never become extinct'.

If one's life is characterized by faultless earning and generous sharing his posterity will be blessed.

I have based this translation on an implied meaning of Parimelalagar's interpretation. Parimelalagar goes on to add that if one spends ill-gotten wealth in this manner, the good effect of the deed will only accrue to the real owner of the wealth, while he will get only the bad effects. According to him, the poet emphasises in this Kural not only the appropriate way of spending the money in the phrase 'Paathoon' but also the right way of earning that money with the phrase 'Pazhiyangi'. In effect the householder's virtue could be packed into the expression 'Pazhiyangi paathoon' faultless earning and generous sharing', which shall be the touchstone for the best standards of conduct in domestic life. Such a life has to blessed with a bright and never-ending posterity.

A more direct interpretation is as follows:

'Share your food with others, lest you should be cursed.
If you do so the continuity of your progeny is assured'.

In this line, the mode of earning money is not called into question at all. But I prefer Parimelalagar's implied idea, as that would epitomize rightly the depth of Valluvar's concept of the householder's comprehensive virtue or 'Ilvaazvaanin aram' consisting of 'faultless earning and generous sharing' rather than the mercenary guest-service for fear of being cursed, as contained in the latter interpretation. The former interpretation is also more in line with the general trend of the thinking of Valluvar, as it runs throughout the book of 'Arathupal' – the first book of the Kural 'On Virtue', and more particularly in Chapter 12 – On Rectitude – Cf. Kural 112.

The following two passages of the Proverbs from the Old Testament of the Bible, taken together bring out the same idea as postulated in this Kural by Thiruvalluvar, according to my interpretation based on the lines indicated by Parimelalagar.

'A righteous man who walks in his integrity –
blessed are his sons after him'.

'He who has a bountiful eye will be blessed,
for he shares his bread with the poor'.