INTRODUCTION TO
THE STUDY OF TIRUVALLUVAR
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A Lecture by Prof.Avvai Duraisami Pillai
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Part – 46
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இலம் என்று அசைஇ இருப்பாரைக் காணின்
நிலம் என்னம் நல்லாள் நகும். (59)
Poverty sets in and begging increases in its magnitude when the country does not produce sufficiently and supply properly to the full extent of the demand of the countrymen. In the chapter on poverty, Thiruvalluvar is very graphic in describing its evil; the poverty destroys the noble characteristic elements of the parentage and glory of the family in which the particular person is born. His mind becomes wild without any trace of virtue and even his mother looks down upon him as a wretch.
Begging is honourable when it is undertaken for a noble cause. For the propagation of spiritual knowledge, for feeding the enfeebled, for running an orphanage of children etc, mendicancy is allowed. Then it becomes the duty of the agriculturist who is engaged in the production of goods and of the traders who serve the country by distributing these products, to relieve these mendicants. Those who have enough and to spare must also feel it their duty to help them. In this connection Valluvar says that if there is no beggary, people on earth will be inhuman, like a dramatic stage wherein wooden – puppets are brought to play.
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