Peace and Harmony through Literature: Discussion of an ancient Tamil text–Thirukkural

The Shremaya Foundation sponsored the fourth international symposium on 31 July 2019 at Sydney University. This event supported the Foundation’s objective directly in that it promoted inter-cultural dialogue.

The international conferences have previously been held in:

• Nagarkovil, India in 2017
• Liverpool, England in 2018
• New Dehli, India in 2019

The conference provided an opportunity to study the text from an unbiased international perspective and to promote rigorous academic research. Delegates were invited from countries that have a sizeable Tamil population–Mauritious, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Fuji, Australia and New Zealand. Delegates were invited to present the relevance of the Thirukural to their own steps towards creating harmony in their own country of birth or adoption. The conference was funded through fees for participation and private sponsorships. Sponsors included:

• University of Sydney, AustraliaTamil Vallarchi Manram,
• AustraliaInternational Thirukural Foundation,
• MauritiusInstitute of Asian Studies,
• IndiaSpecial Broadcasting Corporation, Australia