A. Chakravarti

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's notability guideline for academics. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted. Find sources: "A. Chakravarti" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "A. Chakravarti" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (August 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

A. Chakravarti (17 May 1880 – 12 February 1960), who served the Indian Educational Service (IES), was a professor of philosophy at the Presidency College in Chennai, India. He is known for translating the Tirukkural into English.

Biography[edit]

Chakravarti served the Indian Educational Services for several years. He was the chief professor of philosophy at the Presidency College in Chennai. He retired from IES as the principal of the Government College at Kumbakonam. In appreciation of his services, the British government honoured him with the title "Rao Bhaghadur."^[1]

Chakravarti translated the Tirukkural into English in prose and published it in 1953 under the title "Tirukkural" published by the Diocesan Press, Madras. His translation consists of four aspects: the original couplets of the Kural text in Tamil script, transliteration in Roman script, translation of the literature in modern English prose, and his comments on the thematic aspects of the original literature. Scholars consider his translation faithful to the original.^[1]

It is necessary to emphasize the fundamental ideal in the original background, namely, the ideal of Ahimsa. This ideal is expounded in all its implications—ethical, social, and economic. The exposition in all these points of view is fundamentally different from the treatment found in the Vedic school. The purpose of this translation is to emphasize this point in view and to bring out the unique character and value of the ancient culture and civilization of the Tamil land... It may be stated here that among all these scholars (Beschi, Graul, Pope and Ellis) it was Colonel Ellis who had a most clear and correct insight into the nature of the cultural background of this unique work. I owe to Colonel Ellis the point [of] view adopted in this translation (Preface, p. III)^[1]

See also[edit]

• Tirukkural translations
• Tirukkural translations into English
• List of translators into English

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• Manavalan, A. A. (2010). A Compendium of Tirukkural Translations in English (4 vols.). Chennai: Central Institute of Classical Tamil, ISBN 978-81-908000-2-0.