As part of Coimbatore's Smart City scheme, a 25-foot-high steel sculpture of the famous Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar in a sitting pose, with written Tamil characters, has been placed near the Kurichikulam lakefront.

Seeing the beauty of the 1,330 interlinked Tamil characters that make up the structure in honour of the 1,330 ‘Thirukkural’ written by Thiruvalluvar is truly a sight to behold! Made of steel, the entire structure includes a total of 247 ‘eluttukkal’ (alphabets), which comprise 12 ‘uyir eluttu’, 18 ‘Mei eluttu’, and 216 ‘uyirmey eluttu’, as noted by Baskar Srinivasan, general manager at Coimbatore Smart City.

The wisdom of Thiruvalluvar, the celebrated Tamil poet, and scholar, is still relevant to date. His most famous work, Tirukkural, is considered one of the greatest works of Tamil literature and is still studied today by scholars and students alike. Tirukkural is a collection of couplets on a wide variety of topics ranging from politics to economics, ethics, and love. There’s no denying that - Thiruvalluvar's insights and life lessons are timeless and have been inspiring generations for centuries.

According to Srinivasan, engineers from different regions of India with expertise in statue-making were assigned to create the statue. This statue has been crafted with four hidden "secret" words that individuals must search for and discover. It sounds like an intriguing and engaging endeavour.

Speaking about the sculptural work; Thirivalluvar is depicted in a sitting posture, holding a ‘panai olai’ (palm leaf) in one hand and the other, an ‘ezhuththani’ (ancient stylus) used for writing manuscripts.

Source: Tribune India