It is our opinion that for the growth of human society both the sexes ought to have those qualities in equal measure, which our comrade listed as belonging to the two separate sexes. Nature’s design itself is suited for such equal sharing. However, due to human artifice, male selfishness and conspiracy, this has been subverted. We could say that merely on account of the additional burden of having to become pregnant with child, carry it for ten months and deliver it, the women’s status need not be different from the men with respect to having the qualities of valour, anger, domination and hardness. Similarly, merely because men do not conceive and deliver children, their position need be any different from that of women in respect of qualities such as love, peace and caring. If we respect true equality and where there is true love, it is certain that, but for the single duty of conceiving and delivering children, all other matters are the same for both the sexes.
The interpretation of the phrase tharkondal as being suffused with love is mainly intended to protect Valluvar from blame and does not do justice to his kural. And again it is not appropriate to explain the term as referring to a woman, whom a man does not have anything to learn from. It is again meaningless to suggest that the idea of falling in worship is a practice not prescribed for men. And also if men have the right to own women, the latter too should have the right to own the former. If there is a condition for women to fall in worship of men, men too should fall in front of women. This is what is known as men- women equal rights. Everything else instead of this, we can easily say, is merely selfishness, brutishness and certainly not love.
Our comrade has suggested that Valluvar does speak of chastity for men too. Though this is possible, what we say is that what is prescribed here for women is not the same for men. In support of male chastity. our comrade has adduced two kurals as evidence. They are:
“Of what use is purity when under surveillance Most valued is the self-guarded purity of women Men of imperfect hearts along seek The shoulders of whores with their hearts elsewhere.”
These, he seems to suggest emphasize male chastity. Our own opinion, however, is that they are not intended for the that purpose. The meaning of the first kural is this: if women are chaste because they are under surveillance then it is useless. Women ought to be chaste voluntarily. The second one is intended to censor men who go after prostitutes and does not refer to men who go about mixing up with women out of love or lust. The term used for the description of men is virtue as ideal and not an obligatory code. In this way, we could quote several other kurals to show that the kural does not advocate uniform morals for both the sexes.
Finally we are grateful to our comrade for the realisation he has brought to us. Just as he would have it, whenever a doubt arises from a reading of the wrings of great men, we have been writing about it only as questionable. However in this matter of chastity, we think that we do not have any doubt in the reading of the kural we have mentioned, and we are pleased to inform that in this matter we also took care to collect the opinions of several learned men. Again we beg to state with humility that in the matter of kural and its author, our reverence to both, though may not exceed that of our comrade, is certainly not less than his. There are several evidences for this. We need not worry at all about the two other kurals (quoted by him) which suggest that it is stupidity to have an opinion different from that of the majority and to find fault with great men. For whosoever is of the nature of speaking forthrightly what he considers right, needs to be ready to confront not only such kurals but many others of the same kind. Such a conclusion need not lead one to any worry.
III. LOVE
The purpose of this essay is to explain that apart from the general meanings denoted by terms such as affection, desire and friendship, the term love (kadal) as it referes to man-woman relationship does not signify any special content.
