32 Facts About Parimelalhagar

Parimelalhagar was the last among the canon of ten medieval commentators of the Kural text most highly esteemed by scholars.

Parimelalhagar was among the five oldest commentators whose commentaries had been preserved and made available to the Modern era, the others being Manakkudavar, Pari Perumal, Kaalingar, and Paridhi.

Parimelalhagar remains the most reviewed, in terms of both praise and criticism, of all the medieval Kural commentators.

Parimelalhagar was born Vanduvarai Perumal in Kancheepuram in the erstwhile Tondai state in a Vaishnavite Brahmin family and is believed to have lived during the late 13th century CE.

Parimelalhagar belonged to the lineage of priests of Sri Ulagalandha Perumal temple in his home town.

Incidentally, there are several tombs indicating the name "Parimelalhagar" found across the district.

Parimelalhagar had a good understanding of Agama, Siddhanta and Vedanta, which are considered vital to unravel the riches of the Tirukkural, which helped him do justice to his commentary.

Parimelalhagar's explanations to Kural couplets 610 and 1103, his reference to the Nalayira Divya Prabandham in various instances, his employment of verses from the Tiruvaymoli in couplets 349 and 370, and his citing Nammalvar's verses in chapter 39 in the second book of the Kural text all indicate that he was a Vaishnavite.

Parimelalhagar's commentary is considered by scholars the best of all ancient commentaries on the Kural text and is esteemed on par with the Kural text itself for its literary quality.

Parimelalhagar provides Tamil translations of Sanskrit terms used by Valluvar.

Parimelalhagar includes in his commentaries literary accounts from both Tamil and Sanskrit literature.

Parimelalhagar summarizes the contents of each chapter with an abstract at the beginning of each chapter, and connects the previous chapter with the current one in a logical manner, justifying his own way of chapter arrangement.

Parimelalhagar connects every couplet within a chapter by explaining the flow of thoughts between them.

Parimelalhagar writes a verbatim explanation to each couplet and clarifies the meaning of difficult words.

Parimelalhagar indicates that every manuscript of the Kural by earlier commentators had only verbatim explanations and that detailed commentaries were made by those who published those manuscripts.

Parimelalhagar provides ample examples wherever necessary, employing several literary phrases before his time in prose.

Parimelalhagar's expertise spanned across fields such as ethics, linguistics, philosophy, mathematics, poetry, logic, metaphysics, theology, politics, music, and medicine.

Parimelalhagar discusses the Samkhya philosophy in couplet 27 and Arhat in couplet 286.

Spelling, homophonic, and other minor textual variations between Manakkudavar and Parimelalhagar commentaries are found in several verses such as couplets 139,256,317, and 445.

Parimelalhagar has cited other earlier commentators in as many as 133 places within his commentary.

Parimelalhagar has justified the changes that he has made to the Kural text in about 48 instances.

Parimelalhagar adopts Manakkudavar's style of reordering the couplets within the chapter in order to keep together the couplets that closely resembled in meaning, besides imparting new perspectives.

Parimelalhagar had an excellent command of both Tamil and Sanskrit.

Parimelalhagar has cited various works of the Tamil literature in his commentary.

Parimelalhagar cites several Ancient Indian parables in places such as kurals 547,899,900, and 935.

Parimelalhagar cites the rules of the Tolkappiam in couplets 3,402,899,960, and 1043.

Parimelalhagar applies the Tolkappiam rules in kurals 86,183, and 457, while in kural 863 he applies the rules of the Nannool.

Parimelalhagar held Valluvar in high regard for upholding virtue incessantly throughout the work of the Kural.

Apart from his work on the Kural, Parimelalhagar has written commentary on the Sangam works of the Paripaadal of the Eight Anthologies series and Tirumurukarruppatai of the Ten Idylls series.

Parimelalhagar is considered the greatest commentator in the history of Tamil literature and has been praised by scholars down the ages.

Parimelalhagar further says that Parimel's elegantly written interpretations have made his commentary a Tamil classic in itself and reflects both the cultural values and textual values of the 13th-to-14th-century Tamil Nadu and that Valluvar's text can be interpreted and manoeuvred in other ways.

Parimelalhagar remains the most studied commentator in the history of Tamil literature, and his commentary remains widely read among the commentaries on the Kural text.