Book excerpt: Traditionally attributed to the weaver-philosopher Thiruvalluvar, the Kural is a philosophical text composed of 1,330 Tamil couplets called kurals. Written sometime before the 5th century CE, the Kural is a comprehensive ethical work divided into three parts, which address righteousness, wealth, and love respectively. (These largely correspond with the life objectives of dharma, artha, and kama found in Hindu thought and Sanskrit literature, omitting the fourth, moksha, or liberation from the cycle of reincarnation.) It’s celebrated as one of the foremost works of classic Tamil literature, having won high acclaim not only in its home country but also internationally among thinkers like Leo Tolstoy, who quoted from the Kural in his “Letter to a Hindu.” This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.