Tirukural

CHAPTER 6

The Good Wife

51

She is the helpful wife who possesses the fullness of domestic virtues and spends within her husband’s means.§

52

Family life, however full, remains empty if the wife lacks the lofty culture of the home.§

53

What does a man lack if his wife is worthy? And what does he possess if she is lacking worth?§

54

What is more majestic than a woman who preserves the prodigious strength of chastity?§

55

Even the rains will fall at her command who upon rising worships not God, but her husband.§

56

A married woman is one who vigilantly guards herself, cares for her husband and protects their unblemished reputation.§

57

Why do guardians protect women by confinement when her own resolute chastity is a woman’s best protection?§

58

A woman deeply devoted to the man who wed her will be worthy of great rewards in the world where Gods delight.§

59

Unless the wife pursues praiseworthy purity, the husband cannot stride before critics like a proud lion.§

60

It is said a worthy wife is the blessing of a home, and good children are its precious ornaments.§