Tirukkural translations into English
List of translations
Below is a list of English translations of the Tirukkural until 2015:

Tirukkural translations into English

Section Title: List of translations
Table Section Text: Below is a list of English translations of the Tirukkural until 2015:

S.No.	Year	Translator(s)	Title of the Translation	Place of Publication	Form	Coverage	Notes

1	1794	Nathaniel Edward Kindersley	Teroovalluvar Kuddal or The Ocean of Wisdom	London (W. Bulmer and Co.)	Verse	Selections

2	1812/1819	Francis Whyte Ellis	Tirukkural	Verse and Prose	Selections	Translated 120 couplets in all—69 of them in verse and 51 in prose. Second edition published by University of Madras Press in 1955 as Tirukkural Ellis Commentary

3	1840	William Henry Drew	The Cural of Tiruvalluvar (Kural 1-630)	Madurai (American Mission Press)	Prose	Partial	Reprints were in 1852, 1962, and 1988 by Kazhagam (Madras) and Asian Educational Services (AES) (New Delhi)

4	1872	Charles E. Gover	Odes from the Kural (Folksongs of South India)	Madras (Higginbothams)	Verse	Selections	Reprint by Gian Publications (Delhi) in 1981

5	1873	Edward Jewitt Robinson	Tamil Wisdom	London (Paternoster Row)	Verse	Partial	Revised edition in 1885 as Tales and Poems of South India; 1st reprint in 1975 by Kazhakam (Madras) and 2nd in 2000 by TNR (Tanjore)

6	1885	John Lazarus	Tirukkural (Kural 631-1330)	Madras (Murugesa Mudaliar)	Prose	Partial	Reprint in 1988 by AES (New Delhi)

7	1886	George Uglow Pope	The Sacred Kurral of Tiruvalluva Nayanar	London (Henry Frowde)	Verse	Complete	Reprint in 1980 by AES (New Delhi)

8	1915	T. Thirunavukkarasu	Tirukkural: A Gem for Each Day	Madras (SPCK Press)	Prose	Selections	Translated only 366 couplets

9	1916	V. V. S. Aiyar	The Kural or The Maxims of Tiruvalluvar	Madras (Amudha Nilayam Private Ltd.)	Prose	Complete	Reprints in 1925, 1952, 1961, and 1982 by Tirupparaitturai Sri Ramakrishna Tapovanam (Tiruchirapalli)

10	1919	T. P. Meenakshisundaram	Published the 1904 work of K. Vadivelu Chettiar with English renderings.

11	1920	S. Sabaratna Mudaliyar	Kural	Madras

12	1926	A. Madhavaiyya	Kural in English	Madras	Verse	Selections	Possibly published earlier in 1923

13	1931	Herbert Arthur Popley	The Sacred Kural or The Tamil Veda of Tiruvalluvar	Calcutta (The Heritage of India Series)	Verse	Selections	Reprint in 1958 by YMCA Publishing House (Calcutta)

14	1933	A. Ranganatha Mudaliar	Tirukkural Mulamum Uraiyum with English Translation	Madras

15	1935	C. Rajagopalachari	Kural, The Great Book of Tiruvalluvar	Madras (Rochouse and Sons Ltd.)	Prose	Selections	Translated only select couplets from Books I and II. Reprints in 1937, 1965, and 1973

16	1942	M. S. Purnalingam Pillai	The Kural in English	Tirunelveli (Sri Kanthimathi Vilasam Press)	Prose	Complete	Reprints in 1999 and 2007 by IITS (Chennai)

17	1946	S. M. Michael	The Sacred Aphorisms of Thiruvalluvar	Nagercoil (The Grace Hut)	Verse	Complete	Reprint in 1968 by M. S. Raja (Sattur)

18	1949	V. R. Ramachandra Dikshitar	Tirukkural	Madras (The Adayar Library and Research Centre)	Prose	Complete	Reprints in 1994 and 2000

19	1950	M. R. Rajagopala Aiyangar	Tirukkural	Kumbakonam	Prose	Complete

20	1953	A. Chakravarti	Tirukkural	Madras (The Diocesan Press, Vepery)	Prose	Complete

21	1954	I. D. Thangaswamy	Tirukkural	Madras	Verse	Selections

22	1962	K. M. Balasubramaniam	Tirukkural of Tiruvalluvar	Madras (Manali Lakshmana Mudaliar Specific Endowments)	Verse	Complete

23	1965	T. Muthuswamy	Tirukkural: The Gospel of Mankind	Madurai (Vivekananda Press)	Prose	Partial

24	1967	V. Chinnarajan	The Kural Gems	Udumalpet	Verse	Selections

25	1968	C. R. Soundararajan	Prose	Complete

26	1968	Emmons E. White	The Wisdom of India	New York City (The Pater Pauper)	Verse	Selections	Also published as The Wisdom of the Tamil People in 1976

27	1968	Shuddhananda Bharati	Tirukkural	Madras (Kazhakam)	Verse	Complete	Also published a complete prose version in 1970

28	1969	G. Vanmikanathan	The Tirukkural	Tiruchirapalli (Tirukkural Prachar Sangh)	Prose	Complete

29	1969	Kasturi Srinivasan	Tirukkural	Bombay (Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan)	Verse	Complete	Reprints in 1976 and 1983 by Kasthuri Sreenivasan Trust (Coimbatore)

30	1969	A. Gajapathy Nayagar	The Rosary of Gems of Tirukkural	Madras

31	1970	Shuddhananda Bharati	Tirukkural	Prose	Complete

32	1971	T. N. S. Ragavachari	Teachings of Tiruvalluvar's Kural	Madras (Health, June 1966 to October 1971)	Prose	Complete	Reprinted in 1982

33	1975	E. V. Singan	Tirukkural	Singapore (EVS Enterprises)	Prose	Complete	Reprinted in 1982

34	1978	S. N. Sriramadesikan	Tirukkural	Madras (Gangai Puthaka Nilayam)	Prose	Complete	Reprinted in 1991, 1994 and 2006

35	1982	S. M. Diaz	Tirukkural	Coimbatore (Ramananda Adigalar Foundation)	Verse	Complete	Reprinted in 2000

36	1987	P. S. Sundaram	Tiruvalluvar: The Kural	New Delhi (Penguin Books India Limited)	Verse	Complete	Reprinted in 1989, 1991, 1992 and 2000 by International Tamil Language Foundation (Illinois)

37	1987	T. S. Ramalingam Pillai

38	1988	K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar	Tirukkural	Calcutta (M. P. Birla Foundation)	Verse	Complete

39	1991	M. Swaminathan

40	1995	T. R. Kallapiran

41	1995	D. V. G. Ramarathinam	Tirukkural	(Thiyaga Durgam)	Prose	Complete

42	1998	J. Narayanasamy	Tirukkural	Coimbatore	Mixed	Complete	Translated more in prose than in verse. Reprinted in 1999

43	1999	K. Kalia Perumal	Wonders of Tirukkural	Thanjavur (Jayam Publications)	Verse	Complete

44	1999	C. B. Acharya

45	2000	Satguru Sivaya Subramuniya Swami (Ed.)	Tirukkural	New Delhi (Abhinav Publications)	Verse	Partial	Translated only the first two sections, viz. Virtue and Wealth.

46	2001	C. R. Sundar	Book Divine Tirukkural	Chennai (Vignesh Pathippakam)	Verse	Complete

47	2003	V. Padmanabhan	Thirukkural with English Explanation	Chennai (Manimekalai Prasuram)	Prose	Complete

48	2004	O. R. Krishnaswami	The Wisdom of Tirukkural—A Guide to Living	Mumbai (Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan)	Prose	Partial	Translated only Books I and II

49	2005	M. D. Jayabalan	Cheyyar (Mavanna Publications)	Verse	Partial	Translated only 321 couplets

50	2006	David Pratap Singh	Tirukkural	Madurai (Master Pathippakam)	Verse	Complete	396 pages

51	2006	S. Ratnakumar	Tirukkural: A Guide to Effective Living	Singapore (Tamils Representative Council [TRC])	Prose	Complete

52	2009	V. Murugan	Thirukkural in English	Chennai (Arivu Pathippagam)	Verse	Complete

53	2009	M. Rajaram	Thirukkural: Pearls of Inspiration	New Delhi (Rupa Publications)	Verse	Complete

54	2014	S. P. Guruparan	Thirukkural: English Translation	Chennai (Mayilavan Padhippagam)	Verse	Complete

55	2015	Gopalkrishna Gandhi	Tiruvalluvar—The Tirukkural: A New English Version	New Delhi (Aleph Book Company)	Verse	Complete

56	2015	R. Venkatachalam	Thirukkural—Translation—Explanation: A Life Skills Coaching Approach	Gurgaon (Partridge Publishing India)	Verse	Complete	Published in 689 pages, with new interpretations given for about 360 couplets.

57	2015	Jyothirllata Girija	Voice of Valluvar—Thirukkural (The Tamil Veda)	Allahabad (Cyberwit.net)	Verse and Prose	Complete

Sentence(s)

The English translation of Tirukkural was made in 1915 by T. Tirunavukkarasu, who translated 366 couplets into English.

final_sentence: The English translation of Tirukkural was made in 1915 by T. Tirunavukkarasu, who translated 366 couplets into English.