One of the classics of Tamil literature, The Kural is a compendium of 1,130 couplets pondering the challenges of correctly understanding virtue, wealth, and love. In this new translation, Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma brings English readers closer than ever to the brilliant inner and outer music of its universal ideas: "The life that cherishes strangers each day / Never falls upon ruin." The introduction clarifies the importance and intentions of this thought-provoking book, a philosophical text in the tradition of the Tao Te Ching.