A poet at land's end

Thiruvalluvar wrote the Thirukkural, 1,330 couplets on virtue, wealth and love that are among the most quoted works in Tamil. His statue stands on a small rock island just off Kanyakumari, where the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean meet, beside the rock of the Vivekananda Memorial.

Numbers in stone

The monument is 133 feet (about 41 metres) tall, for the Kural's 133 chapters. The figure of the poet is 95 feet tall and stands on a 38-foot pedestal, for the 38 chapters of the first book, on virtue: wealth and love, the other two books, rest on that foundation. Three raised fingers of the right hand point to the three books. The statue was designed by the sculptor V. Ganapati Sthapati, is built of thousands of carved granite blocks weighing about 7,000 tonnes in all, and was unveiled by Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi on 1 January 2000.

Getting there

The Poompuhar Shipping Corporation ferry from the Kanyakumari jetty stops at both rocks. Since December 2024 a 77-metre glass bridge over the sea links the statue with the Vivekananda Rock, so you can walk between them. Visitors can climb inside the pedestal to the poet's feet. At its silver jubilee in 2025 the state government named it the Statue of Wisdom.