Microsoft Word Revised Syllabus Ver doc

IN PRAISE OF RAIN
Kural-11 
It is the unfailing fall of rain that sustaineth the earth: look thou therefore upon it as very 
amrita the drink immortal of gods. 
Kural-12 
Every food that is sweet to the taste is the gift or rain to man: and itself also formeth part of 
his food besides. 
Kural-13 
If rain should fail, famine world rage over the wide earth even through it is encircled by the 
ocean. 
Kural-14 
Husbandman would cease to ply the plough if the fountains of the heavens are dried up. 
Kural-15 
It is rain that ruineth, and it is rain again that setteth up those that hath ruined. 
Kural-16 
Even grass will cease to grow if the showers from above should cease to fall. 
Kural-17 
Even the mighty ocean would reek with corruption if the heavens should cease to suck its 
waters and render them back to it. 

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162 
Kural-18 
Sacrifices will not be offered to the Gods nor feasts be celebrated on earth, if the heavens 
should be dried up. 
Kural-19 
Neither Charity nor Tapas will abide on the wide earth if the heavens should hold back their 
showers. 
Kural-20 
Nothing on earth can go on without water: that being so, the conduct of even the most 
virtuously minded of men dependeth ultimately on rain. 
The poet in this second chapter, extols the excellence of rain which he says is worthy 
to be called the food of the gods-ambrosia (The word used for ‘heavenly food’ is the 
Tamilized form of the Sanskrit word amrita) as it is by the continuance of rain that the world 
is preserved in existence. He then speaks about rain in relation to the life that is sustains; 
about how the labour of the plough must cease if the abundance of the wealth-imparting rain 
should diminish and how the daily worship offered to the inhabitants of heaven would be 
discontinued if the previously mentioned phenomenon were to happen. The poet then talks 
about the unique attribute of rain of how it destroys on one hand, but helps restore what it has 
destroyed on the other. This illustrates the incurable optimism of the Indian farmer and the 
sudden change in his fortunes produced by plenteous rain after a season of drought. He then 
underlines the importance of rain in his concluding remark when he mentions that any person 
without the water that comes from the rain, cannot discharge even the duties of life; thus 
proving the fact that all life in this world ultimately depends on it. Rain therefore becomes an 
ancillary cause for the existence of men and for the development of virtue, wealth and bliss, 
which give stability to the world.