AN INTRODUCTION TO
THE STUDY OF TIRUVALLUVAR
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A Lecture by Prof.Avvai Duraisami Pillai
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Part – 8
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The domestic life of each family or the unit of the human society is replete with duties and services to be rendered to the community at large. Human life on earth is always interdependent; physical, economical, social and intellectual inderdependance is the summum bonum of life. With this in his view, Valluvar says that every house-holder must be of help, assistance, and guidance to his fellow men ‘besides being a mainstay of the ascetics, poor and needy, and those who are too old and feeble to shift for themselves. Ancestral worship, devotion to duty, hospitality to the guests and timely help to relatives are the general duties imposed upon each householder. In discharging these duties, the male and female of the family-unit must on no account forget to preserve their person by attending to its needs and comforts. It is the human body which is the most indispensable instrument of carrying out the various Arams, the essence of existence.
The wife of the householder is called the life-partner and she occupies the supreme position of the family in its internal affairs. In the days of Valluvar their union was not separable by any law or regulation. No government had the right to cut asunder their partnership in life. The government of the family was entirely in the hands of the wife and her family budget never ran into deficit. She’ was the home and finance minister to the government of the family.
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