Dr.S.A. Vengada Soupraya Nayagar, Head of the Department of French, Kanchi Mamunivar Government Institute for PG Studies and Research, Pondicherry. He has 33 years of teaching experience. He is also a trilingual translator.
He has translated more than ten French books directly into Tamil, many short stories and poems from Tamil into French.
He has won many awards including the prestigious Romain Rolland Book prize 2021 for best translation, awarded by the Government of France.
Of Eight Anthology of Sangam Tamil Poetry, he has translated "Ainkurunuru" (500 poems) and this "Kuruntokai" (400 poems) into French.
He has participated in many National and International Conferences and presented more than 150 Research Papers in French, Tamil and English.
It gives us great pleasure to know that Kuruntokai is translated into French. This anthology has various dimensions such as the literary wealth of Classical Tamil, artistic and cultural excellence, thoughts on humanity and literary principles of Tamil Language.
Sowriperumal Arangan was the first one to publish Kuruntokai in 1915 at Thirukkannapuram. This has been followed by the attempts of Namachchivayar edition, the Ramarathna lyer edition, the Arunachala Desikar edition and the Dr. U.Ve.Saminadha Iyer Edition.
Editions of Sangam Literature (Pathu Paattu, Ettu Thogai) have been published in many names such as Vaiyapuri Pillai Edition, Kazhaka Edition, Literary Wealth Series, and Commentary Edition.
While Perasiriyar has written commentries for 380 poems of Kurunthokai, Nachinarkiniyar has written commentries for 20 poems. Although these old texts are not available, many scholars like Dr.U.Ve.Saminathiyar, M. Shanmugam Pillai, etc have published their editions along with their commentaries.
Poems of this anthology filled with literary ecstasy are composed between four and eight lines. Poem 40, for instance, has the privilege of featuring on the train of London where the best poems in the world are honored. Deserving to be hailed as "(nalla Kuruntokai) good Kurunthokai", it has been translated into English, Sinhalese, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi and Assamese. Laureate of Semmozhi Kural Peedam, Francois Gros, Professor of French has translated a few poems into French while quoting those poems in his research papers. Similarly, Geetha Dore Ganapathi, Professor in the University of Paris, has translated into French a few poems of Kuruntokai and included them in her collection of Selected Sangam Verses.
National Education Policy 2020 has focused on promotion of Indian languages, arts and culture and calls for enhancing translation and interpretation initiatives. We shall develop high-quality resource materials in several Indian languages. I am delighted to see that Central Institute of Classical Tamil is bringing out the translation of Tirukkural in the 22 scheduled languages and other world languages. Tirukkural truly symbolizes the concept of world literature. It stands out unique in its universality of appeal and perspective. It is considered as one of the greatest works written on ethics and morality.
The Ideas expressed in Tirukkural are universal and even after almost two millennia they are relevant and revered, which is why it has been caled the 'Universal Veda'. Tirukkural has been widely admired by scholars and Influential leaders across the ethical, social, political, religious, philosophical, and spiritual thinkers Including Leo Tolstoy and Mahatma Gandhi, I urge our present and future generations to study the great classical work and to share with society, the message and the vision of life embodied in them.
I commend the efforts of Central Institute of Classical Tamil and the entire team for the series of Tirukkural translations.
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