The dating of the Tirukkural, and by extension the period of its author Valluvar, has been a subject of intense debate among scholars for centuries, and it continues to remain so. The Kural is variously dated between 300 BCE and 5th century CE. According to Blackburn, the "current scholarly consensus" dates the text and the author to approximately 500 CE. The Tamil Nadu government has ratified 31 BCE as the year of birth of Valluvar. Still the precise date as to when Valluvar completed writing the Kural text remains murky. This article speaks about various dates arrived at by various scholars over time.
Dating bases
The Tirukkural belongs to the Late-Sangam period and has been listed as one of the chief text of the Sangam corpus. However, scholars find it difficult to ascertain the exact period of the text and its author and have employed, besides archaeological research, various historical references and linguistic methodologies to arrive at a date.
The following are some of the linguistic methodologies scholars use to date the Kural text: Comparing the text with other contemporary Sanskrit texts and finding out the date by the relevance found in them. Finding out the date on the basis of the number of Sanskrit loan words found in the Kural literature. Arriving at a date on the basis of the meaning of certain terms as suggested by early commentators.
The Sangam texts were historically grouped as the Eighteen Greater Texts (which includes the Ten Idylls and the Eight Anthologies) and the Eighteen Lesser Texts in that order. Many scholars count only the Eighteen Greater Texts as proper Sangam texts and refer to the Eighteen Lesser Texts as the late-Sangam works. The Kural literature, which has been traditionally listed under the Eighteen Lesser Texts group, is the oldest of this group. Evidently, there is no mention about Valluvar in any of the proper Sangam texts. Thus, scholars conclude that the Kural literature appeared only after the Ten Idylls and the Eight Anthologies texts.
In the earliest Sangam literature, verses were composed mostly in the asiriyappa metre. Later texts were written in the vanjippa metre. Other metres such as kalippa, paripaadal, and venpa appeared much later. Verses in all the proper Sangam texts appear in the asiriyappa, kalippa, and paripaadal metres. The Kural couplets were composed in the venpa metre. Thus, Kural is said to have been composed after the Ten Idylls and the Eight Anthologies texts.
The Kural literature has been dated variously from 300 BCE to 7th century CE. According to traditional accounts, it was the last work of the third Sangam, appearing before other post-Sangam texts, and was subjected to a divine test (which it passed). The scholars who uphold this tradition, such as Somasundara Bharathiar and M. Rajamanickam, date the text to as early as 300 BCE. Historian K. K. Pillay assigned it to the early 1st century CE.
Content-based dating
While the earlier Sangam texts approved of, and even glorified, the four immoral deeds of meat-eating, alcohol consumption, polygamy, and prostitution, the Kural literature strongly condemns these as crimes. In fact, it was the Kural text that condemned these as crimes for the first time in the history of the Tamil land. Thus, scholars find this as another reason to place the Kural text after the proper Sangam era.
Historical dating
Scholars who consider Kural to be a work of the 1st century BCE include J. M. Nallaswamy Pillai, D. P. Palaniyappa Pillai, C. Rajagopalachari, C. Dhandapani Desikar, M. Rajamanickam, V. R. Ramachandra Dikshitar, Maraimalai Adigal, and Tarlochan Singh Bedi. According to these scholars, there are many evidences that put Valluvar's date during or before the 1st century BCE. For instance, in his work Description of Ceylon (1726), Dutch scholar and Christian missionary François Valentijn quotes Seneca the Younger's (c. 4 BCE–65 CE) mentioning of the Tirukkural in his works, hinting that Valluvar must have lived during or before Seneca the Younger's time: "Tiriwalluwir: One of their best prayer books, composed in clear and concise verses by Thiruwalluwer. Those who can read and understand him, can also understand the most difficult poets. This writer, according to the writings of Seneca, lived over 1500 years ago at Mailapore."