Written by London Swaminathan

Post No. 16,120

Date uploaded in London – 23 August 2026

Contact – swami_48@yahoo.com

Pictures are taken from various sources for spreading knowledge.

this is a non- commercial blog. Thanks for your great pictures.

tamilandvedas.com, swamiindology.blogspot.com

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Points to be noted:

Two controversies are here; one is vegetarianism; Valluvar attacks carnivorous fellows in 20 couplets here and in the following chapter; that means Christians and Muslims can never follow the poet; among Hindus also we have lots of Non-vegetarians but they don’t eat meat everyday and avoid it on many religious days. At one stage, they completely stop eating it.

Second controversy is about Kural 259 where he mentioned 1000 Yagas. But all the translators have got the correct meaning. Actually, Manu said this before Titu Valluvar; Aayiram for 1000 is a Sanskrit word according to all linguists.

What did Manu say?

वर्षे वर्षेऽश्वमेधेन यो यजेत शतं समाः ।
मांसानि च न खादेद् यस्तयोः पुण्यफलं समम् ॥ 5-५३ ॥

varṣe varṣe’śvamedhena yo yajeta śataṃ samāḥ |
māṃsāni ca na khāded yastayoḥ puṇyaphalaṃ samam || 53 || Manu

If a man performs the Aśvamedha Sacrifice every year, for a hundred years,—and another does not eat meat,—the merit and reward of both these are the same.—(Manu 5-53.)

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Naladiyar Surprise:

A lot of Tamil idiots and half-baked foreign scholars have written that Vegetarianism came to Hindus from Jains and Buddhists.  The Upanishads or the Bhagavad Gita never mentioned Non- Vegetarian food.  They were written before these two religions appeared on earth. Vedas and Smritis mentioned  Non Vegetarian dishes for limited purpose; but whoever dealt with this subject are all carnivorous fellows! They are all Pukka beef eaters or pork eaters. What right they have got to criticise others?

Naladiyaar- naaladiyaar- supposed to be written by Jain saints of Tamil Nadu, has no chapter on Vegetarianism while Great Hindu Valluvar devoted two chapters against meat eating. I still wonder whether any Christian or Muslim (except Abdu Kalam) can follow Valluvar. Is Valluvar out of date /Expired medicine like Mahatma Gandhi? Let us hang their pictures and pretend that we follow them!

Even in Valmiki Ramayana, when Rama leads ascetic life for 14 years he went for hunting to get meat only to do Thithi- ritual for departed souls. Manu also suggested Non -Veg for this ritual. It is a subject for research; but only vegetarians must do it; otherwise, it would be like Bombay Red-light area women writing about Chastity!

Please don’t read Tirukkural Commentaries or Vallalar Books written by carnivorous fellows!

(I deliberately use the word carnivorous, which is used for animals)

Sangam Literature clearly shows that Brahmins cooked only Veggy. Dishes. They even added neither hens nor dogs could enter their streets.

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Look at the last couplet in this chapter: All living beings will raise their hands in worship to him who has never taken a living being’s life. This is the reason Brahmins are called Bhu surar= Devas on Earth= Angles on Earth!

This is the reason Buddha praised Brahmins sky high in Dhammapada:

“And a saint, a Brahmin, is pure from past sins; even if he had killed his father and mother, had murdered two noble kings, and had ravaged a whole kingdom and its people”

–Buddha in Dhammapada, Sloka 294.

A man becomes not a Brahmin by long hair or family of birth. The man in whom truth and holiness, he is in joy and he is a Brahmin -(Dhammapada 393)

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Following Translations are used:

1.A Aranganatha Mudaliyar – ANM+2 ( B.L. Aranganatha iyer and R. Srinivasa Desikan), Year 1933

2.S M Diaz, I G of Police- SMD, Year 2000

3.Rev.Dr.GU Pope – GUP, Year 1886

4.Suddhananda Bharathiyar- SB

5.EVS Publishers, Singapore- EVS, Year 1986

6.H A Popley – HAP (not full book; only selected couplets) Year 1931

7.Tamil Original

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Project Madurai website has all the Tamil books.

Part 44

Chapter 26- The Renunciation of Flesh– புலால் மறுத்தல் – Vegetarianism; Abstinence from flesh; Avoidance of Meat-Eating; Refraining from eating flesh

251.Will a heart that battens on the flesh of other creatures ever feel the tender dew drops of mercy? – A Aranganatha Mudaliyar – ANM+2 ( B.L. Aranganatha iyer and R. Srinivasa Desikan), Year 1933

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251.It is inconsistent with the way of living compassion,

To fatten oneself on the flesh of a fellow-creature- S M Diaz, I G of Police- SMD, Year 2000

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251
How can the wont of ‘kindly grace’ to him be known,
Who other creatures’ flesh consumes to feed his own?
How can he be possessed of kindness, who to increase his own flesh, eats the flesh of other creatures. -Rev.Dr.GU Pope – GUP, Year 1886

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251.What graciousness can one command
who feeds his flesh by flesh gourmand Suddhananda Bharathiyar- SB .       
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251.How can a man be compassionate, who, for the purpose of increasing his own flesh, etas the flesh of other animals- EVS Publishers, Singapore- EVS, Year 1986

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251.How ever can kindness rule the man,

Who eateth other flesh to make his own increase?- H A Popley – HAP (not full book; only selected couplets) Year 1931

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251. தன்னூன் பெருக்கற்குத் தான்பிறிது ஊனுண்பான்
எங்ஙனம் ஆளும் அருள்

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252.The treasures of the world are not for the thriftless and improvident; even so all the joys and blessings of mercy are not unto them that feed on flesh-– ANM+2

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252.Just as wealth does no good to those who do not cherish it in the right spirit,

Compassion too will not coexist with meat-eating-– SMD

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252
No use of wealth have they who guard not their estate;
No use of grace have they with flesh who hunger sate.
As those possess no property who do not take care of it, so those possess no kindness who feed on flesh. – GUP
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252.The thriftless have no property
And flesh-eaters have no pity– SB.       
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252.Those who safeguard their wealth enjoy the possession of it, likewise those who would be compassionate should abstain from eating meat- EVS

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253.A pitiless flesh eater hungers ever more for the delights of tasting flesh on even as an assassin armed revels ever more in thoughts of murder-– ANM+2

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253.The butcher with knife in hand, cannot have compassion in his heart;

It is just the same with those who relish taste of blood-– SMD

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252. பொருளாட்சி போற்றாதார்க்கு இல்லை அருளாட்சி
ஆங்கில்லை ஊன்தின் பவர்க்கு

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253
Like heart of them that murderous weapons bear, his mind,
Who eats of savoury meat, no joy in good can find.
Like the (murderous) mind of him who carries a weapon (in his hand), the mind of him who feasts with pleasure on the body of another (creature), has no regard for goodness. – GUP
***

253.Who wields a steel is steel-hearted
Who tastes body is hard-hearted– SB.     
***

253.The mid of those who feed on flesh of animals, like the cruel mentality of those who carry deadly weapons is devoid of all compassion- EVS

***
253. படைகொண்டார் நெஞ்சம்போல் நன்றூக்காது ஒன்றன்
உடல்சுவை உண்டார் மனம்.

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254.Not to kill is mercy; to slaughter is cruel; and to taste flesh is sin-– ANM+2

***

254.To make others break the law of not killing is inconsistent with compassion;

There is, therefore, no sense in eating the meat of obtained by such killing-– SMD

***

254
‘What’s grace, or lack of grace’? ‘To kill’ is this, that ‘not to kill’;
To eat dead flesh can never worthy end fulfil.
If it be asked what is kindness and what its opposite, the answer would be preservation and destruction of life; and therefore it is not right to feed on the flesh (obtained by taking away life). – GUP
***
254.If merciless it is to kill,
To kill and eat is disgraceful– SB.       
***

254.Grace or sin results from non-killing or killing respectively. It is sinful, therefore, to eat what is obtained by killing- EVS

***

254. அருளல்லது யாதெனில் கொல்லாமை கோறல்
பொருளல்லது அவ்வூன் தினல்.

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255.The spirit of not eating flesh keeps secure the life of a being. And the merciless flesh eater who stifles the life breath of an animal is for ever hurled into the very jaws of hell-– ANM+2

***

255.Avoidance of meat-eating is a vital virtue; on the other hand

Meat-eating leads to sin that cannot be eradicated-– SMD

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255
If flesh you eat not, life’s abodes unharmed remain;
Who eats, hell swallows him, and renders not again.
Not to eat flesh contributes to the continuance of life; therefore if a man eat flesh, hell will not open its mouth (to let him escape out, after he has once fallen in). – GUP
***

255.Off with flesh; a life you save
The eater hell’s mouth shall not waive– SB!       
***
255.Abstinence from meat eating contributes to this maintenance of life. Therefore, if a man has once committed the sin of eating meat the hell which swallowed him will not open its mouth again to release him- EVS

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255. To keep from eating flesh is life’s stability;

Hell will never open its mouth the flesh eater to free—HAP

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255. உண்ணாமை உள்ளது உயிர்நிலை ஊனுண்ண
அண்ணாத்தல் செய்யாது அளறு

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256.If the world were to forswear flesh , no longer would it be held up for sale-– ANM+2

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256.If there is no slaughtering, arising out of the desire for meat-eating,

There will be none to sell meat for profit-– SMD

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256
‘We eat the slain,’ you say, by us no living creatures die;
Who’d kill and sell, I pray, if none came there the flesh to buy?
If the world does not destroy life for the purpose of eating, then no one would sell flesh for the sake of money. – GUP
***
256.None would kill and sell the flesh
For eating it if they don’t wish– SB.       
***

256.If the world will not kill for the sake of eating, then there will be none to sell meat- EVS

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256. தினற்பொருட்டால் கொல்லாது உலகெனின் யாரும்
விலைப்பொருட்டால் ஊன்தருவார் இல்

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257.Be not a riotous flesh eater; for what is flesh but the festering ulcer of an animal-– ANM+2

***

257.Those who realise the flesh eaten is, as it were, a wound on another body;

Will not have recourse to meat-eating-– SMD

***
257
With other beings’ ulcerous wounds their hunger they appease;
If this they felt, desire to eat must surely cease.
If men should come to know that flesh is nothing but the unclean ulcer of a body, let them abstain from eating it. – GUP
***

257.From eating flesh men must abstain
If they but feel the being’s pain– SB.       
***
257.If one realises that meat is the carrion ulcer of an animal’s body, one should abstain from eating meat- EVS

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257. உண்ணாமை வேண்டும் புலாஅல் பிறிதொன்றன்
புண்ணது உணர்வார்ப் பெறின்

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258.Behold the men who have emerged from the bonds of ignorance; they taste not the flesh of a  creature from which life has taken flight-– ANM+2

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258.Those who have a vision that is not blurred by mental confusion,

Will not eat the meat of dead carcasses-– SMD

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258
Whose souls the vision pure and passionless perceive,
Eat not the bodies men of life bereave.
The wise, who have freed themselves from mental delusion, will not eat the flesh which has been severed from an animal. – GUP
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258.Whose mind from illusion is freed
Refuse on lifeless flesh to feed– SB.       
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258.The wise, who have transcended unrighteousness, will not eat flesh from which life has departed- EVS

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258. செயிரின் தலைப்பிரிந்த காட்சியார் உண்ணார்
உயிரின் தலைப்பிரிந்த ஊன்.

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259.Far better and holier than a thousand oblations the sacrificial fires is the one sacred act of  abstaing from the flesh and holds all life tender and sacred-– ANM+2

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259.More meritorious than thousand burnt offerings is to give up

The practice of killing a living creature and eating its carcass-– SMD

***

259
Than thousand rich oblations, with libations rare,
Better the flesh of slaughtered beings not to share.
Not to kill and eat (the flesh of) an animal, is better than the pouring forth of ghee etc., in a thousand sacrifices. – GUP
***

259.Not to-kill-and-eat, truly
Excels thousand pourings of ghee– SB!       
***
259.Better to refrain from killing and abstain from eating the flesh obtained thereby, than kindling a thousand sacrificial fires- EVS

***
259. அவிசொரிந் தாயிரம் வேட்டலின் ஒன்றன்
உயிர்செகுத் துண்ணாமை நன்று.

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260.Verily on its bended knees, does the whole creation pay its reverence to the great heart that abjures flesh and holds all life tender and sacred-– ANM+2

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260.Those who refrain from killing animals and abstain from eating its flesh,

Will receive with folded hands from all creatures of this world- – SMD

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260
Who slays nought,- flesh rejects- his feet before
All living things with clasped hands adore.
All creatures will join their hands together, and worship him who has never taken away life, nor eaten flesh. – GUP

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260.All lives shall lift their palms to him
Who eats not flesh nor kills with whim– SB.     

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260.All living beings will raise their hands in worship to him who has never taken a living being’s life and has abstained from eating meat- EVS

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260. கொல்லான் புலாலை மறுத்தானைக் கைகூப்பி
எல்லா உயிரும் தொழும்

to be continued……………………..

Tags-Brahmins, Yagas, Vegetarianism, Tirukkural Encyclopaedia, Chapter 26, (Kural 251-260), The Renunciation of Flesh, புலால் மறுத்தல், Abstinence from flesh; Avoidance of Meat-Eating; Refraining from eating flesh