The Kural · Chapter
XIX: Refraining from Slander explained
This chapter emphasizes the virtue of refraining from slander and backbiting, highlighting the moral superiority of silence over deceitful speech.
What happens
This chapter emphasizes the virtue of refraining from slander and backbiting, highlighting the moral superiority of silence over deceitful speech. It warns that slander reveals a mean heart, destroys friendships, and invites exposure of one's own faults, ultimately urging self-reflection and righteousness.
Themes in this chapter
Virtue and Righteousness
The chapter extols refraining from slander as a righteous act, contrasting it with the meanness of backbiting.
Social Harmony and Ethics
Slander is condemned for creating discord and separating friends, underscoring the importance of ethical speech for social cohesion.
Characters to notice
- the Kural
The chapter is a direct excerpt from the Kural, teaching the importance of avoiding slander.
Key passages
“It is wrong to turn away from good and do evil: but it is far worse to smile before and vilify behind.”
Doing evil is bad, but hypocrisy—pretending to be friendly while speaking ill behind someone's back—is even worse.
Highlights the moral severity of duplicity in slander.
“If thou slander another, he will look into thy own transgressions and expose the worst of them.”
Slandering someone invites them to scrutinize and reveal your own faults.
Warns of the reciprocal harm of slander.