Chennai: Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi on Thursday gave a "spiritual" twist to Thirukural, a seminal work of couplets containing largely life lessons penned by ancient Tamil saint-poet Thiruvalluvar. He accused G. U. Pope, a British missionary who is hailed by Dravidian leaders, of having "despiritualised" the Thirukural while translating it into English.
Ravi made the remarks while unveiling a statue of Thiruvalluvar at the Delhi Tamil Education Association Senior Secondary School in New Delhi.
According to the Raj Bhavan, the Governor elaborated how the British mandated the East India Company to "evangelize India" and how missionaries like G.U. Pope presented a de-spiritualized version of the Thirukural. "The translation was done with a colonial objective to trivialise the spiritual wisdom of India. "The British attempted to destroy India’s great spirituality by distorting Indian history and culture and by colonising the people’s minds," he charged.
His remarks come against the backdrop of political controversy in recent years in Tamil Nadu, in which sections of the BJP sought to portray Thiruvalluvar as a Hindu savant with saffron robes.
According to the Governor, the ‘Aadhi Bhagavan’ quoted in the first Thirukural couplet ‘Aadhi Bhagavan’ is found in all the Indian languages. "The concept of ‘Aadhi Bhagavan’ is in the Rig Veda also. It is at the core of Indian spirituality. "It is far from ‘Primal Deity’ as translated by colonial apologists," he argued.
He urged the youths and the scholars "to shun the colonial interpretation" of priceless works in Tamil and "have a soulful reading of these scriptures and experience their true essence."
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