LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 21:2 February 2021
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

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Thirumoolar and Tao: Tamil and Chinese Ideas About Life

Dr. S. Sridevi

Abstract

This paper aims at studying how Classical Tamil and Chinese poetics have focused on mental health and attempts to understand how a balanced approach to life can be retained by constructing ideas about life. Human mind has to poise its need to win with the reality of a brief life. Discussing death does not refer to depression or pain; instead, it reminds us of the briefness of life, and how it can be handled with ease and happiness. People spend a lot of energy in trying to control the people around them and this mental work leads to lots of stress and unhappiness. Poets and thinkers recommend freedom of the spirit and happiness.

Keywords: mental health, Thirumoolar, Tao Te Ching, Periyar

Introduction

This paper attempts to understand how Thirumoolar from Tamil Nadu, India, and Tao Te Ching from China have interpreted human experiences and have arrived at philosophies to approach life. Their suggestions appear to be ethical principles, but beneath the ethics one can notice the embedded ideology of living with good mental health.

Thirumanthiram is a collection of three thousand quatrains (usually defined as “a stanza or poem of four lines, usually with alternate rhymes” www.dictionary.com) written by Thirumoolar, who is supposed to have lived two thousand years ago. Historical details are not available, and the existing written legends say that he studied along with rishis in Kailash. The details are lost in myths and religious stories and we lose track about the real person.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Dr. S. Sridevi
Professor
Research Department of English
CTTE College for Women
Chennai 600011
sridevisaral@gmail.com
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