About this project
We created this project to make the Thirukkural easier to discover and use. When we could not find a public REST API for the Kurals, we began building one—alongside a welcoming place to read, learn, and explore.
The Thirukkural is a classic Tamil work of 1,330 concise couplets. It explores how to live with integrity, take part in society, and build human relationships. Its three sections are commonly understood as virtue, wealth, and love.
Thiruvalluvar, often called Valluvar, is the poet and thinker traditionally credited with composing the Thirukkural. Many details of his life remain uncertain; his couplets continue to be read and interpreted across generations.
We want the work to feel approachable to curious readers and useful to people who teach, study, and build. Browse a couplet, compare interpretations, or use the REST API to create a thoughtful learning experience with modern technology.
Our vision and mission
Our mission is to make the Thirukkural approachable for readers and practical for learners, educators, and developers. We do this by bringing the collection, attributed interpretations, and a free public API together in one open-source project—and by staying open to learning and improving along the way.
Content and languages
The couplets are presented in Tamil. Tamil meanings are credited to Mu. Varadarajan (Mu.Va), Solomon Pappayya, and M. Karunanidhi (Kalaignar).
The English translation is credited to G. U. Pope. A separate modern-English interpretation offers a plain-language explanation; it is not a literal translation. Latin-script transliterations help readers sound out the Tamil couplets.
The transliteration data is based on the public Thirukkural dataset; English chapter labels are based on its chapter metadata. The modern-English interpretations are explanatory editorial content prepared for this project.
Open source and public use
The application code is open source under the MIT License, and the public REST API is available free of charge for public use. We hope it helps people learn, experiment, and build useful tools. Please use the service considerately and check the original terms for third-party texts and datasets before reusing them; the software license does not automatically cover every content source.
We are grateful to G. U. Pope for the English translation; to Mu. Varadarajan, Solomon Pappayya, and M. Karunanidhi (Kalaignar) for the Tamil meanings; and to Vercel, Google, and OpenRouter for technology and services that support this project.
These acknowledgments describe the sources and services used by the project; source texts, translations, and datasets may have terms separate from the MIT-licensed application code.
