One of the qualities of the Kural that I am always keen to point out is how playful and musical its language truly is.
Indeed, that’s why I sang a verse at the Chennai International Book Fair as a way of demonstrating my belief that a translation of the Kural should also be singable.
And that’s also why I’m humbled and honored and delighted to be part of a forthcoming and epic musical project being carried out by Lydian Nadhaswaram and his older sister Amirthavarshini.
Here is a trailer (with English subtitles) for this extraordinary project, which aims to set all 1330 verses of the Kural to music. If you’ve ever heard me speak (or sing) you might recognize the last voice in the video . . .
I had the enormous privilege of meeting Amirthavarshini, Lydian, and their family when I was in Chennai.
As you can imagine, I can hardly wait for the release of the project as a whole.