Herbert Arthur Popley

Herbert Arthur Popley
Born	1879
Died	9 May 1960
Occupation	Christian missionary
Known for	Translator of theTirukkural

Herbert Arthur Popley(born c. 1879) was aChristianmissionaryof London Mission,Erode,known for his literary work as a translator of theTirukkuraland his skill in renderingTamilChristian music in theCarnaticstyle. He was secretary of the All-India Y.M.C.A. At the time of his death, he was president of the local Y.M.C.A. and a director of the Coonoor Co-operative Urban Bank Ltd. He died inCoonooron 9 May 1960 at the age of 81.

Tirukkural translation

At the suggestion of the then general editor of the Heritage of India Series,Calcutta,J. N. Farquhar, Popley started translating selections of the Tirukkural into English and published the work in 1931 with the Y. M. C. A. Publishing House. Translated in verse, the work was titledThe Sacred Kural or The Tamil Veda of Tiruvalluvar.The work contained translations of 346 couplets of the Kural text, including 194 fromBook I(virtue), 135 fromBook II(wealth), and 17 fromBook III(love). In 1958, the second edition with revised translations was published, which contained translations of 511 couplets, including 299 from Book I, 190 from Book II, and 22 from Book III. The work includes a detailed introduction and explanatory notes quoting translators such asW. H. Drew,G. U. Pope,V. V. S. Aiyar,andA. Chakravarti,in addition to a bibliography citing various European language translations of the Kural text.

His other publication includesThe Music of India,published in the Heritage of India Series, Calcutta.

See also

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

Further reading

• Manavalan, A. A. (2010).A Compendium ofTirukkuralTranslations in English(4 vols.). Chennai: Central Institute of Classical Tamil,ISBN978-81-908000-2-0.