The second international conference on Thirukkural would be held in Nagercoil from May 17 to 19, said G. John Samuel, International Coordinator of the conference and founder-Director of Institute of Asian Studies, here on Monday.
Speaking to reporters, Dr. Samuel said the conference had been organised in association with Mauritius-based International Association of Tamil Diaspora. The first conference was held in Mauritius on August 6 last year. The aim of the conference was to urge UNESCO to announce Thirukkural as an ethical corpus of the world. The third conference would be held in Paris on August 6 and 7 in 2020.
The three-day meet would be held at Scott Christian College in Nagercoil. About 500 delegates from across the world, including a large number of non-resident Indians from Mauritius who were not familiar with Tamil, would participate in the conference, he added.
United Kingdom-based Tamil Scholar Grehori James would take part in the conference. There would be special sessions on translation of Thirukkual from its original form instead of translated versions in other languages. With the Thirukkural having been translated in 48 languages, the conference would give impetus for translation in in more languages, on the lines of Bible. Bible had been translated in 3,000 global languages, Mr. Samuel said.
It was expected that 150 research papers on Thirukkural would be submitted at the conference. Selected papers would be published in four volumes after the conference. School and college students and public could take part in the conference, Mr. Samuel said.
S. Padmanabhan, president of Kanniyakumari District Historical Research Centre, and other coordinators of the conference were present.
