Parimelazhagar

Parimelazhagar (c. 13th century AD) was a Tamil poet and commentarian who was known for his commentary on the Thirukkural. Pari-Mel-Azhagar literally means Handsome Man upon the Horse.

Biography

Simon Casie Chetty in his Tamil Plutarch mentions Parimelazhagar as a Tamil poet who was renowned mainly because of his commentary on the Thirukkural. Though there were nine other commentaries too, Parimelazhagar's was regarded as the best of the ten.

Publication

Parimelazhagar's commentary is the main source of interpretation of thirukural verses as claimed by many great Tamil scholars. Even modern commentators use this commentary as a main source for their work. Almost all text books of schools and Universities of Tamil Nadu and elsewhere use his commentary as authority for commentary in Kural.

A great amount of Parimelazhagar's commentary was published in English by Rev. Mr. Drew and others. Please refer Thiruvalluvar for more commentaries.

Praise

George L. Hart regards Parimelazhagar's treatise on yoga asanas as one of the purest literary works in Tamil.[1]

References

  1. ↑ "Caste and the Tamil Nation". tamilnation.org.