The Kurals are the wisdom literature of the Tamils, at the southern cape of India; the Kural of Tiruvalluvar (the modern transliteration) is the most famous of them. Its 1330 distichs are divided into discussions of virtue, wealth (especially the wealth of kings), and love, both divine and marital love. Karl or Charles Graul, a Lutheran missionary among the Tamils, here provides a German translation with interlinear commentary on the substance of this Kural. Appendices translate the sources on the life of Tiruvalluvar. Graul wrote with the hope that missionaries might speak with educated Tamils in "that ideal element in which they breathe and live"; this translation will also serve students of Eastern philosophy and Tamil literature.