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Thiruvalluvar

Thiruvalluvar, commonly known as Valluvar, was an Indian poet and philosopher. He is best known as the author of the Tirukkuṟaḷ, a collection of couplets on ethics, political and economic matters, and love. The text is considered an exceptional and widely cherished work of Tamil literature.

Almost no authentic information is available about Valluvar, states Kamil Zvelebil – a scholar of Tamil literature. His life and likely background are variously inferred from his literary works by different biographers. There are unauthentic hagiographic and legendary accounts of Valluvar's life, and all major Indian religions, as well as Christian missionaries of the 19th century, have tried to claim him as secretly inspired (crypto-) or originally belonging to their tradition. Little is known with certainty about his family background, religious affiliation, or birthplace. He is believed to have lived at least in the town of Mylapore (a neighbourhood of the present-day Chennai), and his floruit is dated variously from fourth century BCE to early fifth century CE, based on the traditional accounts and the linguistic analyses of his writings. Kamil Zvelebil infers the Tirukkuṟaḷ and Valluvar are best dated to around 500 CE.

Valluvar has influenced a wide range of scholars down the ages since his time across the ethical, social, political, economical, religious, philosophical, and spiritual spheres. He has long been venerated as a great sage, and his literary works a classic of Tamil culture.

Life
There is negligible authentic information available about Valluvar's life. In fact, neither his actual name nor the original title of his work can be determined with certainty. Tirukkuṟaḷ itself does not name its author. Monsieur Ariel, a French translator of his work in the 19th century, famously said it is "the book without a name by an author without a name". The name Thiruvalluvar (lit. Saint Valluvar) was first mentioned in the later text Tiruvalluva Maalai.

The speculations about Valluvar's life are largely inferred from his work Tirukkuṟaḷ and other Tamil literature that quote him. According to Zvelebil, Valluvar was "probably a learned Jain with eclectic leanings and intimate acquaintance with the early works of Tamil classical period and some knowledge of the Sanskrit legal and didactic texts (subhashita)".

Traditional biographies
The Shaivite Tamil text Tiruvalluva Maalai contains the earliest known textual reference to the legend of Valluvar, but it remains undated. This text attracted attention in the colonial era because an early 19th-century commentary referred to him as "Valluvan" (Valluvar) whose text presented the "esoteric wisdom of the Vedas to the world". The original text relates the Kural in the context of Sanskrit literature. The commentary includes the gloss that Valluvan was "born in a low caste", but the original text does not. According to Stuart Blackburn, this comment appears to be extra-textual and possibly based on the oral tradition. No other pre-colonial textual sources have been found to support any legends about the life of Valluvar. Starting around the early 19th century, numerous legends on Valluvar in Indian languages and English were published.

Various claims have been made regarding Valluvar's family background and occupation in the colonial era literature, all inferred from selective sections of his text or hagiographies published since the colonial era started in Tamil Nadu. One traditional version claims that he was a Paraiyar weaver. Another theory is that he must have been from the agricultural caste of Vellalars because he extols agriculture in his work. Another states he was an outcast, born to a Pariah woman and Brahmin father. Mu Raghava Iyengar speculated that "valluva" in his name is a variation of "vallabha", the designation of a royal officer. S. Vaiyapuri Pillai suggested Valluvar derived his name from "Valluvan" (a Paraiyar caste of royal drummers) and theorized that he was "the chief of the proclaiming boys analogous to a trumpet-major of an army". H. A. Stuart, in his Census Report of 1891, claimed that Valluvans were a priestly class among the Paraiyars and served as priests during Pallava reign, and similarly Robert Caldwell, J. H. A. Tremenheere and Edward Jewitt Robinson, too, claimed that Valluvar was a Paraiyar. Valluvar was likely married to a woman named Vasuki and lived in Mylapore. According to traditional accounts, Valluvar died on the day of Anusham in the Tamil month of Vaikasi.

The poem Kapilar Agaval, purportedly written by Kapilar, describes its author as a brother of Valluvar. It states that they were children of a Pulaya mother named Adi and a Brahmin father named Bhagwan. The poem claims that the couple had seven children, including three sons (Valluvar, Kapilar, and Atikaman) and four sisters (Avvai, Uppai, Uruvai, and Velli). However, this legendary account is spurious. Kamil Zvelebil dates Kapilar Agaval to 15th century CE, based on its language. Various biographies mention the name of Valluvar's wife as Vasuki, but such details are of doubtful historicity.

The traditional biographies are not only inconsistent, they contain claims about Valluvar that are not credible. Along with various versions of his birth circumstances, many state he went to a mountain and met the legendary Agastya and other sages. During his return journey, he sits under a tree whose shadow sits still over Valluvar and does not move the entire day, he kills a demon, performs miracles such as causing floods and making them retreat, he touches a grounded ship which miraculously then floats and sails off, his bride Vasuki cooks sand which comes out as boiled rice, and many more. Scholars consider these and all associated aspects of these hagiographic stories to be fiction and ahistorical, a feature common to "international and Indian folklore". The alleged low birth, high birth, and being a pariah in the traditional accounts are also doubtful.

By 1904, Purnalingam Pillai, an ardent Dravidianist, had analyzed and called these traditional accounts and stories as myths. Pillai's analysis and arguments are robust, according to Blackburn. These fictional accounts of Valluvar's life have become popular because aspects of the traditional accounts were selectively accepted by Christian missionaries such as George Pope and other European writers, were widely published and then became a required reading about Tamil history.

Date
The exact date of Valluvar is unclear. His work Tirukkuṟaḷ has been dated variously from 300 BCE to about the sixth century CE. According to traditional accounts, it was the last work of the third Sangam and was subjected to a divine test (which it passed). The scholars who believe this tradition, such as Somasundara Bharathiar and M. Rajamanickam, date the text to as early as 300 BCE. Historian K. K. Pillay assigned it to the early first-century CE. These early dates such as 300 BCE to 1 BCE are unacceptable and not supported by evidence within the text, states Zvelebil. The diction and grammar of the Tirukkuṟaḷ, his indebtedness to some earlier Sanskrit sources, suggest that he lived after the "early Tamil bardic poets", but before Tamil bhakti poets era.

In 1959, S. Vaiyapuri Pillai assigned the work to around or after the sixth-century CE. His proposal is based on the evidence that the Tirukkuṟaḷ contains a large proportion of Sanskrit loan words, shows awareness and indebtedness to some Sanskrit texts best dated to the first half of the first-millennium CE, and the grammatical innovations in the language of Tirukkuṟaḷ. Pillai published a list of 137 Sanskrit loan words in Tirukkuṟaḷ. Later scholars Thomas Burrow and Murray Barnson Emeneau show that 35 of these are of Dravidian origin, and not Sanskrit loan words. Zvelebil states that an additional few have uncertain etymology and future studies may prove those to be Dravidian. The 102 remaining loan words from Sanskrit are "not negligible", and some of the teachings in the Tirukkuṟaḷ states Zvelebil are "undoubtedly" based on the then extant Sanskrit works such as the Arthashastra and Manusmriti (also called the Manavadharmasastra).

According to Kamil Zvelebil, the Tirukkuṟaḷ does not belong to the (Sangam) period. In the 1970s, Zvelebil dated the text to somewhere between 450 and 500 CE. His estimate is based on the dates of Tamil texts with similar Tamil language features, and by placing it after some of the Tamil and Sanskrit treatises that are evidenced in the Tirukkuṟaḷ. Zvelebil notes that the text features several grammatical innovations, that are absent in the older Sangam literature. The text also features a higher number of Sanskrit loan words compared with these older texts. According to Zvelebil, besides being part of the ancient Tamil literary tradition, the author was also a part of the "one great Indian ethical, didactic tradition", as a few of his verses are "undoubtedly" translations of the verses in Sanskrit classics.

In the 19th century and early 20th century, European writers and missionaries variously dated the text and Valluvar to between 400 and 1000 CE. According to Blackburn, the "current scholarly consensus" dates the text and the author to approximately 500 CE.

In January 1935, the Tamil Nadu government officially recognized 31 BCE as the year of Valluvar. As suggested by Maraimalai Adigal, the Valluvar Year was added to the calendar. Thus, the Valluvar year is calculated by adding 31 to any year of the common era.

Birthplace
As with most other details about Valluvar, the exact place of his birth remains uncertain. Valluvar is believed to have lived in Madurai and later in the town of Mayilapuram or Thirumayilai (present-day Mylapore in Chennai). There are also accounts that say he was born in Mayilapuram and later moved to Madurai in order to publish his work at the royal court. The poem Kapilar Akaval states that Valluvar was born on the top of an oil-nut or iluppai tree (Madhuca indica) in Mayilapuram, while verse 21 of the Tiruvalluva Maalai claims that he was born in Madurai.

In 2005, a three-member research team from the Kanyakumari Historical and Cultural Research Centre (KHCRC) claimed that Valluvar was born in Thirunayanarkurichi, a village in present-day Kanyakumari district. Their claim was based on an old Kani tribal leader who told them that Valluvar was a king who ruled the "Valluvanadu" territory in the hilly tracts of the Kanyakumari district.

Religion
Valluvar is generally thought to have belonged to either Jainism or Hinduism. Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism were the three religions that flourished in the Indian subcontinent during the time of Valluvar. Early 19th-century writers proposed that Valluvar may have been a Jain. The 1819 translation by Francis Whyte Ellis mentions that the Tamil community debates whether Valluvar was a Jain or Hindu. If Valluvar was indeed a Jain, it raises questions about the source of the traditional Valluvar legends and the mainstream colonial debate about his birth.

Kamil Zvelebil believes that the ethics of the Tirukkuṟaḷ reflects the Jain moral code, particularly moral vegetarianism (couplets 251–260), and ahimsa, that is, "abstention from killing" (couplets 321–333); scholars also note the articulation of Thiruvalluvar in one of the couplets of Tirukkuṟaḷ on the liberation (Moksha) from the cycle of rebirth (Saṃsāra) through living a life with a compassionate heart. Zvelebil states that the text contains epithets for God that reflect Jain ideology:
 * Malarmicaiyekinan (Couplet 3), "he who walked upon the [lotus] flower"
 * Aravaliyantanan (Couplet 8), "the Brahmin [who had] the wheel of dharma"
 * Enkunattan (Couplet 9), "one of the eight-fold qualities"

These, according to Zvelebil, are "very much Jaina-like" because the arhat is seen as "standing on the lotus", or where the arhat in the Jain conception is the god with the lotus as his vehicle. There are exceptions, adds Zvelebil, when Valluvar treats this God with epithets found in the Hindu text Manusmriti (1.6), that is, "the Primeval Lord" and "the King, the Monarch". Zvelebil states that his proposal is supported by the 13th-century Hindu scholar Parimelalhagar, who wrote a commentary on the Kural text, who admitted that these epithets are "very well applicable" to a Jain Arhat. However, according to P. S. Sundaram – a scholar who has translated the text in the late 20th century, Parimelalhagar's commentary explicitly states that there are no [Jaina] heretical beliefs in the texts either.

Some other epithets mentioned in the text also reflect a "strong ascetic flavour" of Jainism in Zvelebil's view:

 * Ventutal ventamai ilan (Couplet 4), "he who has neither desire nor aversion"
 * Porivayil aintavittan (Couplet 6), "he who has destroyed the gates of the five senses"

Zvelebil further states that Valluvar seems to have been "cognizant of the latest developments" in Jainism. Zvelebil theorizes that he was probably "a learned Jain with eclectic leanings", who was well-acquainted with the earlier Tamil literature and also had knowledge of the Sanskrit texts. Nevertheless, early Digambara or Svetambara Jaina texts do not mention Valluvar. The first claim of Valluvar as an authority appears in a 16th-century Jain text, about 1,100 years after his life.

According to other scholars, Valluvar's writings suggest that he belonged to Hinduism. Hindu teachers have mapped his teachings in Tirukkuṟaḷ to the teachings found in Hindu texts. Valluvar's treatment of the concept of ahimsa or non-violence, which is the principal concept in both Jainism and Hinduism, bolsters this argument. While the text extols the virtue of non-violence, it also dedicates many of 700 porul couplets to various aspects of statecraft and warfare in a manner similar to Arthasastra: "An army has a duty to kill in battle, and a king must execute criminals for justice." This non-mystic realism and the readiness for just war teachings are similar to those found in Hinduism. According to M. S. Purnalingam Pillai, Valluvar has not condemned Saiva Siddhanta or its principles anywhere in the text, which he says is the crucial test to be applied in determining his religion. Matthieu Ricard believes Valluvar belonged to the Shaivite tradition of South India.

The three parts that the Kural literature is divided into, namely, aram (virtue), porul (wealth) and inbam (love), aiming at attaining vitu (ultimate salvation), follow, respectively, the first three of the four foundations of Hinduism, namely, dharma, artha, kama and moksha. According to Norman Cutler, the prodigious 13th-century Tamil scholar Parimelalakar – who wrote the most influential commentary on Tirukkuṟaḷ – interprets the layout and focus on the Valluvar to be synonymous with the Sanskritic concept of Puruṣārtha (the objectives of human life). According to Parimelalakar, the Valluvar text covers primarily and directly the first three aspects, but not vitu (moksha, release). The text, however, does cover turavaram (renunciation) – the means to attain spiritual release. Thus, vitu is indirectly discussed in the Kural text.

In the introductory chapters of the Kural, Valluvar cites Indra, the king of heaven, to exemplify the virtue of conquest over one's senses. According to Tamil Hindu scholars such as Parimelalakar, other concepts and teachings found in Valluvar's text and also found in Hindu texts include Vedas, gods (Trimurti), sattva, guṇa, munis and sadhus (renouncers), rebirth, affirmation of a primordial God, among others. According to Purnalingam Pillai, who is known for his critique of Brahminism, a rational analysis of the Valluvar's work suggests that he was a Hindu, and not a Jain. Similarly, J. J. Glazov, a Tamil literature scholar and the translator of the Kural text into the Russian language, sees "Thiruvalluvar as a Hindu by faith", according to a review by Kamil Zvelebil.

Valluvar's mentioning of God Vishnu in couplets 610 and 1103 and Goddess Lakshmi in couplets 167, 408, 519, 565, 568, 616, and 617 hints at the Vaishnavite beliefs of Valluvar. Shaivites have characterised Valluvar as a devotee of Shiva and have installed his images in their temples. According to Zvelebil, Valluvar sometimes uses epithets for God that are found in Hindu Dharmasastras and not in Jaina texts. Further, in some teachings about politics, economics, and love, Valluvar undoubtedly has translated into Tamil the verses found in Sanskrit texts such as Arthasastra.

According to Stuart Blackburn, the Tirukkuṟaḷ is not a bhakti text, and it neither satirizes nor eulogizes Brahmins or ritualism. It is a practical, pragmatic text and "certainly not a Shaivite or Vaishnavite" text. According to Norman Cutler, Tirukkuṟaḷ is an aphoristic text and the influential Parimelalakar's commentary interprets it within his own context, grounded in Hindu concepts and theological agenda. His elegantly written interpretations have made his commentary a Tamil classic and maneuvered Valluvar as consistent within the framework of Parimelalakar's Hinduism. His commentary on Valluvar's teachings reflects both the cultural values and textual values in the 13th-to-14th-century Tamil Nadu. Valluvar's text can be interpreted and maneuvered in other ways.

Other religious claims
Despite scholars suggesting that Valluvar is either a Jain or a Hindu, owing to the Kural text's non-denominational nature, almost every religious group in India, including Christianity, has claimed the work and its author as one of their own. However, these claims are not supported academically and are constantly refuted by scholars. For example, the Christian claims have cropped up only after the colonial missionaries came to India. The Tamil Scholar Mu. Varadarajan suggests Valluvar must have "practised religious eclecticism, maintained unshakeable faith in dharma but should have rejected religious symbols and superstitious beliefs."

The Dalit activist Iyothee Thass, who converted to Buddhism, claimed that Valluvar was originally called "Tiruvalla Nayanar", and was a Buddhist. Thass further contended that the name "Tirukkuṟaḷ" is a reference to the Buddhist Tripiṭaka. He claims that Valluvar's book was originally called Tirikural ("Three Kurals"), because it adhered to the three Buddhist scriptures Dhamma Pitaka, Sutta Pitaka, and Vinaya Pitaka. According to Thass, the legend that presents Valluvar as the son of a Brahmin father and a Paraiyar mother was invented by Brahmins in 1825, who wanted to Hinduise a Buddhist text. According to Geetha, the deconstruction and reinterpretation of the history of Valluvar into a Buddhist framework by Thass shows the significance and appropriation of Valluvar's text by all sections of Tamil society.
 * Buddhism

The 19th-century Christian missionary George Uglow Pope claimed that Valluvar must have come in contact with Christian teachers such as Pantaenus of Alexandria, imbibed Christian ideas and peculiarities of Alexandrian teachers and then wrote the "wonderful Kurral" with an echo of the "Sermon on the Mount". According to Pope, Valluvar must have lived in the ninth century CE because that would fit the historical chronology to his theory. Nevertheless, scholars, including Zvelebil, J. M. Nallaswamy Pillai, Sundaram Pillai, Kanakasabai Pillai, and Krishnaswamy Aiyengar, and even missionaries such as John Lazarus refute such claims. Pillai declares Pope's claim as "an absurd literary anachronism" and says that the first two books of the Kural, in particular, are "a stumbling block which can browbeat the most sublime ideas of Christian morality." According to John Lazarus, the Kural's chapter on "no killing" applies to both humans and animals, in stark contrast to the Bible's concept of killing, which refers only to the taking away of human life. He observes, "None of the ten epithets by which the Deity is described in the opening chapter of the Kural have the remotest connection with Christ or God, that is to say, as they are designated in the Bible". He also says that the chapter on love "is quite different from the Apostle's eulogium in 1 Cor. xiii".
 * Christianity

In the 1960s, some South Indian Christians led by M. Deivanayagam at the Madras Christian College, presented Valluvar as a disciple of Thomas the Apostle. According to this theory, Thomas visited present-day Chennai, where Valluvar listened to his lectures on the Sermon on the Mount. However, later scholars refute this claim. According to Zvelebil, the ethics and ideas in Valluvar's work are not Christian ethics, but those found in Jainism doctrine, which can be seen from the Kural's unwavering emphasis on the ethics of moral vegetarianism (Chapter 26) and non-killing (Chapter 33), as against any of the Abrahamic religious texts.

Literary works
Tirukkuṟaḷ is the primary work credited to Valluvar. It contains 1330 couplets, which are divided into 133 sections of 10 couplets each. The first 38 sections are on moral and cosmic order (Tamil: aram, Skt: dharma), the next 70 are about political and economic matters (Tamil: porul, Skt: artha), and the remaining 25 are about pleasure (Tamil: inbam, Skt: kama).

Of the three sections, Valluvar's second section (porul) is about twice the size of first section, and three times that of the third. In the 700 couplets on porul (53% of the text), Valluvar mostly discusses statecraft and warfare. Valluvar's work is a classic on realism and pragmatism, and it is not a mystic, purely philosophical document. Valluvar teachings are similar to those found in Arthasastra, but differ in some important aspects. In Valluvar's theory of state, unlike Kautilya, the army (patai) is most important element. Valluvar recommends that a well kept and well trained army (patai) led by an able commander and ready to go to war is necessary for a state. Valluvar presents his theory of state using six elements: army (patai), subjects (kuti), treasure (kul), ministers (amaiccu), allies (natpu), and forts (aran). Valluvar also recommends forts and other infrastructure, supplies and food storage in preparation for siege.

The Tirukkuṟaḷ text has been translated into several Indian and international languages. It was translated into Latin by Constanzo Beschi in 1730, which helped make the work known to European intellectuals. Tirukkuṟaḷ is one of the most revered works in the Tamil language.

Tirukkuṟaḷ is generally recognized as the only work by Valluvar. However, in the Tamil literary tradition, Valluvar is attributed to be the author of many other later-dated texts including two Tamil texts on medicine, Gnana Vettiyan (1500 verses) and Pancharathnam (500 verses). Many scholars state that these are much later era texts (16th and 17th centuries), possibly by an author with the same name as Valluvar. These books, 'Pancharathnam' and 'Gnana Vettiyan', contribute to Tamil science, literature and other Siddha medicines. In addition to these, 15 other Tamil texts have been attributed to Valluvar, namely, Rathna Sigamani (800 verses), Karpam (300 verses), Nadhaantha Thiravukol (100 verses), Naadhaantha Saaram (100 verses), Vaithiya Suthram (100 verses), Karpaguru Nool (50 verses), Muppu Saathiram (30 verses), Vaadha Saathiram (16 verses), Muppu Guru (11 verses), Kavuna Mani (100 verses), Aeni Yettram (100 verses), Guru Nool (51 verses), Sirppa Chinthamani (a text on astrology), Tiruvalluvar Gyanam, and Tiruvalluvar Kanda Tirunadanam. Several scholars, such as Devaneya Pavanar, deny that Thiruvalluvar was the author of these texts.

Reception
George Uglow Pope called Valluvar "the greatest poet of South India", but according to Zvelebil, he does not seem to have been a poet. According to Zvelebil, while the author handles the metre very skillfully, the Tirukkuṟaḷ does not feature "true and great poetry" throughout the work, except, notably, in the third book, which deals with love and pleasure. This suggests that Valluvar's main aim was not to produce a work of art, but rather an instructive text focused on wisdom, justice, and ethics.

Valluvar is revered and highly esteemed in the Tamil culture, and this is reflected in the fact that his work has been called by nine different names: Tirukkuṟaḷ (the sacred kural), Uttaravedam (the ultimate Veda), Thiruvalluvar (eponymous with the author), Poyyamoli (the falseless word), Vayurai valttu (truthful praise), Teyvanul (the divine book), Potumarai (the common Veda), Muppal (the three-fold path), and Tamilmarai (the Tamil Veda).

Its influence and historic use is legendary. In 1708, the German missionary, Bartholomaus Ziegenbalg, remarked that the Malabaris "think very highly of it", they make it "their handbook" often quoting from it to prove the validity of their traditions and arguments, and such books are "not just read but learned by heart" by the learned among them. According to Blackburn, it is hard to outdo the "hyperbolic honors" heaped on Valluvar and his work by the early Europeans in colonial India. Gover, for example, praised it as "Tamil Homer, The Ten Commandments, and Dante rolled into one". During the colonial era, it was the text the Hindus used to respond to the "Christian allegations of Hindu superstition and barbarity".

Temples
Valluvar is traditionally worshiped as a god and saint by various communities across the Southern region of India. Many communities, including those in Mylapore and Tiruchuli, worship Valluvar as the 64th Nayanmar of the Saivite tradition. There are various temples exclusively dedicated to Valluvar across South India. The most famous of these is the temple at Mylapore, Chennai. Built in the early 16th century, the shrine is located within the Ekambareeswara-Kamakshi (Shiva-Parvati) temple complex in Mylapore. The locals believe that this is where Valluvar was born, underneath a tree within the shrines complex. A Valluvar statue in a seated posture holding a palm leaf manuscript of Tirukkuṟaḷ sits under the tree. In the shrine dedicated to him, Valluvar's wife Vasuki is patterned after the Hindu deity Kamakshi inside the sanctum. The temple shikhara (spire) above the sanctum shows scenes of Hindu life and deities, along with Valluvar reading his couplets to his wife. The sthala vriksham (holy tree of the temple) is the iluppai tree under which Valluvar is believed to have been born. The temple was extensively renovated in the 1970s.

At the Valluvar temple at Tiruchuli near Aruppukkottai in Virudhunagar district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Valluvar is taken in a procession as the 64th Nayanmar on his death anniversary in the Tamil month of Maasi (February–March) by the Valluvar community, who are into fortune-telling, chiefly in the Periya Pudupatti village. The same practice can be found in other communities as well, including Mylapore.

Other temples for Valluvar are located at Periya Kalayamputhur, Thondi, Kanjoor Thattanpady, Senapathy, and Vilvarani.

Memorials
A temple-like memorial to Valluvar, Valluvar Kottam, was built in Chennai in 1976. This monument complex consists of structures usually found in Dravidian temples, including a temple car carved from three blocks of granite, and a shallow, rectangular pond. The auditorium adjoining the memorial is one of the largest in Asia and can seat up to 4,000 people.

A 133-foot tall statue of Valluvar was unveiled on 1 January 2000, at Kanyakumari at the southern tip of the Indian subcontinent, where the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal, and the Indian Ocean converge. The 133 feet denote Tirukkuṟaḷ's 133 chapters or athikarams and the show of three fingers denote the three themes Aram, Porul, and Inbam, that is, the sections on morals, wealth and love. The statue was designed by V. Ganapati Sthapati, a temple architect from Tamil Nadu. On 9 August 2009, a statue was unveiled in Ulsoor, near Bengaluru, also making it the first of its kind in India for a poet of a local language to be installed in its near states other than his own home land. A 12-foot statue of Valluvar was also installed in Haridwar, Uttarakhand. There is also a statue of Valluvar outside the School of Oriental and African Studies in Russell Square, London. A life-size statue of Valluvar is one among an array of statues installed by the Tamil Nadu government on the stretch of the Marina.

The Government of Tamil Nadu celebrates the 15th (16th on leap years) of January (the second of the month of 'Thai' as per Tamil Calendar) as Thiruvalluvar Day in the poet's honour, as part of the Pongal celebrations. Thiruvalluvar Day was first celebrated on 17 and 18 May 1935.

Music
Valluvar's works have also influenced the South Indian classical music and popular culture. Carnatic musicians and composers such as Mayuram Vishwanatha Shastri and M. M. Dandapani Desigar have tuned select couplets in the 19th and 20th centuries. In January 2016, Chitravina N. Ravikiran set music to the entire 1330 verses using over 169 Indian ragas. The Kural couplets have also been recorded by various Tamil film music composers.

title: Thiruvalluvar


text:
Hyperelliptic curve

In algebraic geometry, a hyperelliptic curve is an algebraic curve of genus g > 1, given by an equation of the form $$y^2 + h(x)y = f(x)$$ where f(x) is a polynomial of degree n = 2g + 1 > 4 or n = 2g + 2 > 4 with n distinct roots, and h(x) is a polynomial of degree < g + 2 (if the characteristic of the ground field is not 2, one can take h(x) = 0).

A hyperelliptic function is an element of the function field of such a curve, or of the Jacobian variety on the curve; these two concepts are identical for elliptic functions, but different for hyperelliptic functions.

Genus
The degree of the polynomial determines the genus of the curve: a polynomial of degree 2g + 1 or 2g + 2 gives a curve of genus g. When the degree is equal to 2g + 1, the curve is called an imaginary hyperelliptic curve. Meanwhile, a curve of degree 2g + 2 is termed a real hyperelliptic curve. This statement about genus remains true for g = 0 or 1, but those special cases are not called "hyperelliptic". In the case g = 1 (if one chooses a distinguished point), such a curve is called an elliptic curve.

Formulation and choice of model
While this model is the simplest way to describe hyperelliptic curves, such an equation will have a singular point at infinity in the projective plane. This feature is specific to the case n > 3. Therefore, in giving such an equation to specify a non-singular curve, it is almost always assumed that a non-singular model (also called a smooth completion), equivalent in the sense of birational geometry, is meant.

To be more precise, the equation defines a quadratic extension of C(x), and it is that function field that is meant. The singular point at infinity can be removed (since this is a curve) by the normalization (integral closure) process. It turns out that after doing this, there is an open cover of the curve by two affine charts: the one already given by $$y^2 = f(x) $$ and another one given by $$w^2 = v^{2g+2}f(1/v) .$$

The glueing maps between the two charts are given by $$(x,y) \mapsto (1/x, y/x^{g+1})$$ and $$(v,w) \mapsto (1/v, w/v^{g+1}),$$ wherever they are defined.

In fact geometric shorthand is assumed, with the curve C being defined as a ramified double cover of the projective line, the ramification occurring at the roots of f, and also for odd n at the point at infinity. In this way the cases n = 2g + 1 and 2g + 2 can be unified, since we might as well use an automorphism of the projective plane to move any ramification point away from infinity.

Using Riemann–Hurwitz formula
Using the Riemann–Hurwitz formula, the hyperelliptic curve with genus g is defined by an equation with degree n = 2g + 2. Suppose f : X → P1 is a branched covering with ramification degree 2, where X is a curve with genus g and P1 is the Riemann sphere. Let g1 = g and g0 be the genus of P1 ( = 0 ), then the Riemann-Hurwitz formula turns out to be
 * $$2-2g_1 =2(2-2g_0)-\sum_{s \in X}(e_s-1)$$

where s is over all ramified points on X. The number of ramified points is n, and at each ramified point s we have es = 2, so the formula becomes
 * $$2-2\times g =2(2-2\times0)-n\times(2-1)$$

so n = 2g + 2.

Occurrence and applications
All curves of genus 2 are hyperelliptic, but for genus ≥ 3 the generic curve is not hyperelliptic. This is seen heuristically by a moduli space dimension check. Counting constants, with n = 2g + 2, the collection of n points subject to the action of the automorphisms of the projective line has (2g + 2) − 3 degrees of freedom, which is less than 3g − 3, the number of moduli of a curve of genus g, unless g is 2. Much more is known about the hyperelliptic locus in the moduli space of curves or abelian varieties, though it is harder to exhibit general non-hyperelliptic curves with simple models. One geometric characterization of hyperelliptic curves is via Weierstrass points. More detailed geometry of non-hyperelliptic curves is read from the theory of canonical curves, the canonical mapping being 2-to-1 on hyperelliptic curves but 1-to-1 otherwise for g > 2. Trigonal curves are those that correspond to taking a cube root, rather than a square root, of a polynomial.

The definition by quadratic extensions of the rational function field works for fields in general except in characteristic 2; in all cases the geometric definition as a ramified double cover of the projective line is available, if the extension is assumed to be separable.

Hyperelliptic curves can be used in hyperelliptic curve cryptography for cryptosystems based on the discrete logarithm problem.

Hyperelliptic curves also appear composing entire connected components of certain strata of the moduli space of Abelian differentials.

Hyperellipticity of genus-2 curves was used to prove Gromov's filling area conjecture in the case of fillings of genus =1.

Classification
Hyperelliptic curves of given genus g have a moduli space, closely related to the ring of invariants of a binary form of degree 2g+2.

History
Hyperelliptic functions were first published by Adolph Göpel (1812-1847) in his last paper Abelsche Transcendenten erster Ordnung (Abelian transcendents of first order) (in Journal für die reine und angewandte Mathematik, vol. 35, 1847). Independently Johann G. Rosenhain worked on that matter and published Umkehrungen ultraelliptischer Integrale erster Gattung (in Mémoires des savants etc., vol. 11, 1851).

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Hyperelliptic curve


text:
Talk:Destino

Untitled
In response to the request for Peer Review, good work, just check the recent changes for what to improve. Above all, never, ever use a "!". -- user:zanimum

The link to the Star-Telegram article is a dead link. This should be re-linked or taken out. -Bxm 18:14, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

How can I get a copy of this? If some one knows, you should leave a comment on my talk page. --The_stuart 16:19, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

Financial considerations
I recall hearing around the time of Destino's release that Disney was granted rights to the relevant Dali works only if the film was actually made, and one of the reasons for the eventual production was to retain those rights. However, I recall no sources on this point. Does anyone have additional information? Jeremy Tobacman 15:25, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

Distribution
When and where was Destino distributed? I first saw it at a showing of Triplets of Belleville. Jeremy Tobacman 15:25, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

You can watch this on YouTube, although I don't know if it's complete. Also, someone edited this and used it as a music video for Cynic's "Space For This", it's pretty great. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.26.243.56 (talk) 07:46, 31 October 2009 (UTC)

Translations of Destino
The list of languages where Destino exists is not helpful: "Destino (the Galician, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian word for "destiny")"

I propose to delete all but Spanish, on the basis that Dalí was Spanish/Catalan.

Also, Google Translate says that destino means destination in Catalan. However, as the plot seems to be more about destiny than destination we should not mention this. Verbcatcher (talk) 20:41, 10 May 2014 (UTC)

Surrealist film?
As the film was a collaboration with Salvidor Dali and is basically an animated incarnation of his surrealist painting style, I'm not sure how it can be argued that it has "no connection to the Surrealist movement". Any thoughts on this? Kaldari (talk) 22:27, 2 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Dali had been ejected from the Surrealist movement before he began work on that film, and working with Disney would certainly have been regarded as proof that he was no longer working as a Surrealist or an artist allied with Surrealist concerns. Is there any reputable source that argues that this is a Surrealist film?  ---  The Old Jacobite   The '45  22:41, 2 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Dali was expelled from the self-described Surrealist Movement in about 1939. (Is this the same as the Bureau of Surrealist Research?) But this does not mean that he stopped being a surrealist artist. He continued to paint in the surrealist style, using its themes and motifs. Would you argue that a Dali painting with a melting watch from 1931 was surrealist, but one from 1950 was not? Destino clearly has a connection to Surrealism, and is an example of Surrealist cinema. Verbcatcher (talk) 04:04, 3 November 2014 (UTC)
 * I found a few potential sources:
 * A Vernacular Vanguard: Surrealism and the Making of American Art History: "Even to follow the trajectory of Dali's own experience with film—which led him from the avant-garde Un Chien Andalou (1929) to the dream sequence of Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945) and finally to the posthumously-realized (and Oscar nominated) Disney-produced Destino (2003, begun in 1946)—parallels the transitions that the reception of Surrealism as a whole has undergone in art history and mass culture."
 * Dada & Surrealism For Beginners: "While the Hitler fetish was baffling, modern readers might be startled to learn that Dali also collaborated with Walt Disney. It sounds, well, surreal—our modern-day associations with Disney are... cute. As anyone who has seen Dali's work could attest, his work was not 'cute.' What would such collaboration look like? [image] The project was abandoned due to an anticipated lack of public interest. However, it was released in 2003 under the name Destino and won various film awards. And so it was that Dalí 'outsurrealed' the Surrealists, including Breton."
 * Pacific Standard Time: Los Angeles Art, 1945-1980: Chapter entitled "Southland Surrealism": "Hollywood was certainly effective in introducing surrealism to postwar America at large. After fleeing German-occupied France, Salvador Dalí spent eight years in the United States. Dalí was in New York for most of this time, but his frequent visits to Los Angeles were fruitful: he undertook commercial collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock in 1945 and Walt Disney in 1946."
 * Kaldari (talk) 04:35, 3 November 2014 (UTC)
 * More sources from highbrow newspapers:
 * "The storyboard was written by Dali himself in the 1940s, and this animation film contains dream-like images of mysterious flying and walking figures. The plot focuses on a woman who undergoes surreal transformations - her lover's face melts off, she transforms into a dandelion, ants crawl out of a hand and she becomes a group of Frenchmen riding bicycles. What Dali called his "paranoiac-critical method", or the linking of irrational images, such as his melting clocks and trompe l'oeil effects, is clearly recognisable throughout the film."
 * "The storyboard was written by Dali himself in the 1940s, and this animation film contains dream-like images of mysterious flying and walking figures. The plot focuses on a woman who undergoes surreal transformations - her lover's face melts off, she transforms into a dandelion, ants crawl out of a hand and she becomes a group of Frenchmen riding bicycles. What Dali called his "paranoiac-critical method", or the linking of irrational images, such as his melting clocks and trompe l'oeil effects, is clearly recognisable throughout the film."

 * "The six-minute film features eyeballs in dinner jackets, a wall eroded by the sands of time and a ballerina's head that turns into a baseball."
 * "The six-minute film features eyeballs in dinner jackets, a wall eroded by the sands of time and a ballerina's head that turns into a baseball."

 * "Dalí's signature incongruities dominate the film; there are crawling ants, colossal statues, shadowy vistas, a baseball ballet and, of course, melting clocks. [...] Directed by Dominique Monfery, this remake closely follows Dalí's original storyboards, a symbolic exploration of the joy and pain of adult amorous relationships with constantly metamorphosing images that have the elusive quality of a sensual dream."
 * "Dalí's signature incongruities dominate the film; there are crawling ants, colossal statues, shadowy vistas, a baseball ballet and, of course, melting clocks. [...] Directed by Dominique Monfery, this remake closely follows Dalí's original storyboards, a symbolic exploration of the joy and pain of adult amorous relationships with constantly metamorphosing images that have the elusive quality of a sensual dream."

 * Verbcatcher (talk) 05:51, 3 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Two more. I can't vouch for these websites, but they appear to be academically rigorous.
 * "As with many "surrealistic" films, the plot of the completed Destino is difficult to convey, though fans of Un Chien Andalou will recognize a swarm of ants emerging from a hole in a man’s hand – reflecting Dalí’s 1920s interest in putrefaction and recalling the same swarms of ants that attack the soft clocks in The Persistence of Memory."
 * "As with many "surrealistic" films, the plot of the completed Destino is difficult to convey, though fans of Un Chien Andalou will recognize a swarm of ants emerging from a hole in a man’s hand – reflecting Dalí’s 1920s interest in putrefaction and recalling the same swarms of ants that attack the soft clocks in The Persistence of Memory."

 * "The finished film unites Dali's surrealist vocabulary to animation and includes five of Dali's original paintings."
 * "The finished film unites Dali's surrealist vocabulary to animation and includes five of Dali's original paintings."

 * Verbcatcher (talk) 06:26, 3 November 2014 (UTC)

The two previous editors have presented ample evidence that a broad range of critics consider the film to be surrealist in style. Dali's "official" status in the Surrealist movement is largely irrelevant, though his formal expulsion could be mentioned as a parenthetical aside, at most. Thank you for finding so many references; please add some of them to the article. As noted in the head, the entire article could use some more specific footnotes, beyond the paltry two refs at present. Reify-tech (talk) 15:13, 3 November 2014 (UTC)

 * In view of Reify-tech's comments and in the absence of a further response from TheOldJacobite I will reinstate the Category:Surrealist films. Verbcatcher (talk) 21:17, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

title: Talk:Destino


text:
International Swaps and Derivatives Association

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA ) is a trade organization of participants in the market for over-the-counter derivatives.

It is headquartered in New York City, and has created a standardized contract (the ISDA Master Agreement) to enter into derivatives transactions. In addition to legal and policy activities, ISDA manages FpML (Financial products Markup Language), an XML message standard for the OTC Derivatives industry. ISDA has more than 925 members in 75 countries; its membership consists of derivatives dealers, service providers and end users.

History
ISDA was initially created in 1985 as the International Swap Dealers Associations, Inc. and subsequently changed its name switching "Swap Dealers" to "Swaps and Derivatives". This change was made to focus more attention on their efforts to improve the more broad derivatives markets and away from strictly interest rate swap contracts.

In 2009 a New York Times article mentioned that in 2005 the ISDA allowed rule changes to CDO payouts (Pay as You Go) that would benefit those who bet against (shorted) mortgage-backed securities, like Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, and others.

ISDA has offices in New York, London, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Washington D.C., Brussels and Singapore. It has more than 800 member firms from six continents. The current Chief Executive Officer is Scott O'Malia, who joined ISDA in 2009.

ISDA Master Agreement
The ISDA Master Agreement is typically used between a derivatives dealer and its counterparty when discussions begin surrounding a derivatives trade. There are two basic forms of Master Agreement: single jurisdiction/currency and multiple jurisdiction/currency. One of these documents is generally combined with a Schedule to set out the basic trading terms between the parties; each subsequent trade is then recorded in a Confirmation which references the Master Agreement and Schedule. The terms of the Schedule are often negotiated, and many firms have preferred versions of the Schedule.

According to Financial Times reporter Stacy-Marie Ishmael, the Master Agreement is "fundamental to, and provides a template for, the derivatives market."

ISDA has also drafted a Tahawwut Master Agreement in cooperation with the International Islamic Financial Market, with the aim of standardizing derivatives transactions under Islamic law.

Versions
The ISDA Master Agreement was first published in 1992, and a second edition was published in 2002. The second edition was drafted in response to market difficulties in the late 1990s, and could be adopted either in a unified form or as standard form amendments to the first edition. Key changes in the second edition include:
 * Shortening the grace period for payment defaults from three business days to one business day [Refer Section 5 (a)(i) of 2002 version]
 * Introduction of a force majeure provision as a termination event
 * Introduction of a set-off provision [Included in the 2002 version in Section 6(f)]
 * Conformation of jurisdiction clause to the Brussels Regime
 * Introduction of Close-out Amount

On April 8, 2009, ISDA introduced further compulsory modifications known as the "Big Bang Protocol." The key changes introduced by this protocol include:
 * Introduction of "auction settlement" to eliminate the need for credit event protocols to settle CDS transactions
 * Automatic incorporation of Determinations Committee resolutions into the terms of standard CDS contracts
 * "Look back" provisions, also known as "backstop dates," which institute a common standard effective date for CDS transactions

The Protocol also introduced more standardized terms in order to limit the scope of negotiation in individual CDS transactions, thus making individual contracts more fungible in trading.

ISDA's report commissioned by the "UK Financial Services Authority on behalf of the international group of OTC derivative supervisors asked ISDA in October 2009 to conduct a broad market review of bilateral collateralization practices for OTC derivatives to facilitate better understanding of current market practice, especially as it relates to the different types of counterparties active in the market." The list of ISDA 196 primary members in 2012 included Glencore International AG, BP Plc, Koch Supply & Trading, LP, Citadel Securities LLC, Daewoo Securities Co., Ltd. and market makers investment banks such as Deutsche Bank AG, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Barclays Capital, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, The Royal Bank of Scotland plc (RBS Greenwich?) and UBS AG as well as numerous national banks such as National Australia Bank Limited National Bank of Abu Dhabi National Bank of Canada National Bank of Greece National Bank Trust. Energy corporations listed include Centrica Energy Limited, Shell Energy North America (US), L.P. and Totsa Total Oil Trading S.A. The list of 296 associate members include TriOptima, IntercontinentalExchange, Inc., Standard & Poor's, Reuters, LCH.Clearnet Limited, Bloomberg Financial Markets, Deloitte LLP, Algorithmics, Inc., Markit Group Limited and MarkitSERV LLC.

Netting
Possibly the most important aspect of the ISDA Master Agreement is that the Master Agreement and all the Confirmations entered into under it form a single agreement. This is very important (especially for regulated financial companies) as it allows the parties to an ISDA Master Agreement to aggregate the amounts owing by each of them under all of the Transactions outstanding under that ISDA Master Agreement and replace them with a single net amount payable by one party to the other. Netting, dealt with under section 2(c) of the ISDA Master Agreement, allows the parties to net out amounts payable on the same day and in the same currency.

The more important use of netting is close-out netting under Section 6(e) of the ISDA Master Agreement. Pursuant to this section, when an ISDA Master Agreement (or, more accurately the outstanding Transactions under it) is terminated (normally following a credit event of some kind), the value of each of the Terminated Transactions is assessed (there are several ways this can be done, but the most usual measure is to determine how much it would cost for a party to enter into a Transaction having commercial terms identical to the Terminated Transaction with an independent third party - this is called the Settlement Amount) and converted into the Termination Currency (which should have been specified in the schedule to the ISDA Master Agreement) and any outstanding Unpaid Amounts are taken into account. The Settlement Amounts (which may be positive or negative depending which party is 'in-the-money' with respect to a particular Terminated Transaction) and unpaid amounts (again positive or negative, depending on who owes them) are added up and a single figure in the Termination Currency is determined payable by one party or the other. The enforceability of the close-out netting provisions is absolutely vital to financial institutions active in the derivatives market since the ability to net allows them to allocate capital only against the net figure they would have to pay on close-out of an ISDA Master Agreement rather than the gross amount. ISDA has obtained legal opinions from all important jurisdictions confirming the effectiveness of the close-out netting provisions in those jurisdictions. Members of ISDA are entitled to rely on these opinions.

ISDA also produces a model "Netting Act" which can be adopted by jurisdictions where close-out netting does not work effectively at present.

Credit support annex (CSA)
ISDA also produces a credit support annex which further permits parties to an ISDA Master Agreement to mitigate their credit risk by requiring the party which is 'out-of-the-money' to post collateral (usually cash, government securities or highly rated bonds) corresponding to the amount which would be payable by that party were all the outstanding Transactions under the relevant ISDA Master Agreement terminated. Collateral other than cash is usually discounted for risk, that is, the pledgor would have to post collateral in excess of the potential settlement amount.

ISDAFIX
From 1998 until August 2014, ISDA was responsible for releasing a series of interest rate swap reference rates for four currencies (Euros, British pounds, Swiss francs, U.S. dollars) under the name ISDAfix. Following rate manipulation scandals, these rates are now administered by the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE). Further, the Swiss francs rate is no longer reported.

Credit events and determinations committees
ISDA has five Determinations Committees, each having jurisdiction over a specific region of the world (the Americas, Asia excluding Japan, Australia/New Zealand, EMEA and Japan). Each committee consists of ten voting dealers and five voting non-dealer asset managers. The committees make official, binding determinations regarding the existence of "credit events" and "succession events" (such as mergers), which may trigger obligations under a credit default swap contract.

Since July 2009, the primary means of resolving a credit event is auction settlement, where holders of applicable instruments (as decided by the relevant determinations committee) auction their instruments to potential buyers at a set price.

In March 2012, ISDA issued a statement declaring that Greece, through passing legislation that forces losses on all its private creditors, has triggered the payment on default insurance contracts, thus instigating a credit event. The ISDA said the use of "collective action clauses (CACs) to amend the terms of Greek law-governed bonds issued by The Hellenic Republic such [as] the right of all holders of the Affected Bonds to receive payments has been reduced."

Definitions
ISDA also creates industry standards for derivatives and provides legal definitions of terms used in contracts. An example is the 1999 ISDA Credit Derivatives Definitions, which provide basic definitions for credit default swaps, total return swaps, credit linked notes and other credit derivative transactions.

A controversy resulted over the definition of a "restructuring event" in connection with the August 2000 restructuring of USD 2.8 billion of debt by an insurance company. This prompted complaints from protection sellers in credit default swaps, who had to compensate for an event that was seen as normal in the credit business. There was also a fear of a conflict of interest, since protection buyers had nothing to lose by agreeing to restructuring. (Protection buyers included some of the insurance company's lenders.)


text:
Boat building

Boat building is the design and construction of boats (instead of the larger ships) — and their on-board systems. This includes at minimum the construction of a hull, with any necessary propulsion, mechanical, navigation, safety and other service systems as the craft requires.

The boat building industry provides for the design, manufacturing, repair and modification of human-powered watercrafts, sailboats, motorboats, airboats and submersibles, and caters for various demands from recreational (e.g. launches, dinghies and yachts), commercial (e.g. tour boats, ferry boats and lighters), residential (houseboats), to professional (e.g. fishing boats, tugboats, lifeboats and patrol boats).

Wood
Wood is the traditional boat building material used for hull and spar construction. It is buoyant, widely available and easily worked. It is a popular material for small boats (of e.g. 6 m length; such as dinghies and sailboats). Its abrasion resistance varies according to the hardness and density of the wood and it can deteriorate if fresh water or marine organisms are allowed to penetrate the wood. Woods such as teak, totara and some cedars have natural chemicals which prevent rot whereas other woods, such as Pinus radiata, will rot very quickly. The hull of a wooden boat usually consists of planking fastened to frames and a keel. Keel and frames are traditionally made of hardwoods such as oak while planking can be oak but is more often softwood such as pine, larch or cedar.

Plywood is especially popular for amateur construction but only marine ply using waterproof glues and even laminates should be used. Cheap construction plywood often has voids in the interior layers and is not suitable to boat building as the voids trap moisture and accelerate rot as well as physically weaken the plywood. No plywood is rot resistant and should be coated with epoxy resin and/or a good paint system. Varnish and Linseed oil should not be used on the exterior of a hull for waterproofing. Varnish has about 60% of the water resistance of a good paint system. Only boiled linseed oil should be used on a boat and only in the interior as it has very little water resistance but it is very easy to apply and has a pleasant smell. Note that used linseed rags should not be left in a pile as they can catch fire. A valuable 200-year-old waka (Maori canoe) caught fire in New Zealand in June 2014 when restorers left rags piled overnight. Raw linseed oil is not suited to boats as it stays damp and oily for a long time. Mildew will grow well on raw linseed oil treated timber but not on boiled linseed oil. More recently introduced tropical woods as mahogany, okoumé, iroko, Keruing, azobé and merbau. are also used. With tropical species, extra attention needs to be taken to ensure that the wood is indeed FSC-certified. Teak or iroko is usually used to create the deck and any superstructure. Glue, screws, rivets and/or nails are used to join the wooden components. Before teak is glued the natural oil must be wiped off with a chemical cleaner, otherwise the joint will fail.

Traditional wood construction techniques can be classified into the "shell-first" method (also called "planking first") and the "frame first" method. With "shell first", the form of the hull is determined by joining shaped planks that are fastened together, followed by reinforcing the structure with the frames (or ribs) that are fitted to the inside. With "frame first", the hull shape is established by setting up the frames on the keel and then fastening the planking on the outside.

Some types of wood construction include:

 * Carvel, in which a smooth hull is formed by edge joined planks attached to a frame. The planks may be curved in cross section like barrel staves. Carvel planks are generally caulked with oakum or cotton that is driven into the seams between the planks and covered with some waterproof substance. It takes its name from an archaic ship type and is believed to have originated in the Mediterranean. A number of boat building texts are available which describe the carvel planking method in detail.
 * Clinker is a planking-first technique originally identified with the Scandinavians and Ingveonic people in which wooden planks are fixed to each other with a slight overlap that is beveled for a tight fit. The planks are mechanically connected to each other with copper rivets, bent over iron nails, screws or in modern boats with adhesives. Often, steam bent wooden ribs are fitted inside the hull.
 * Strip planking is yet another type of wooden boat construction similar to carvel. It is a glued construction method which is very popular with amateur boatbuilders as it is quick, avoids complex temporary jig work and does not require shaping of the planks.
 * Sheet plywood boat building uses sheets of plywood panels usually fixed to longitudinal long wood such the chines, inwhales (sheer clamps) or intermediate stringers which are all bent around a series of frames. By attaching the ply sheets to the longwood rather than directly to the frames this avoids hard spots or an unfair hull. Plywood may be laminated into a round hull or used in single sheets. These hulls generally have one or more chines and the method is called Ply on Frame construction. A subdivision of the sheet plywood boat building method is known as the stitch-and-glue method, where pre-shaped panels of plywood are drawn together then edge glued and reinforced with fibreglass without the use of a frame. Metal or plastic ties, nylon fishing line or copper wires pull curved flat panels into three-dimensional curved shapes. These hulls generally have one or more chines. Marine grade plywood of good quality is designated "WBP" (which stands for water- and boiled-proof) or more usually BS 1088. Australian plywood manufacturers and suppliers have issued warnings that some Asian nations are selling ply stamped BS 1088 which does not meet international standards. Specifically, they say outer plies are too thin (should be 1.2 mm minimum) or are very thin (less than 0.5 mm) or high-grade surface ply such as Okoume is combined with a much heavier and wider inner cores. Most high-grade marine Okoume (Gaboon) ply uses lightweight poplar inner cores. Often the 1088 stamp is blurred in the poor Asian ply so it is not clear. In Australia and New Zealand a higher-grade marine ply than BS1088 is AS2272. It requires both faces to be "A" quality, with even-thickness plies. The most common plywood used for this grade is plantation-grown Hoop Pine which is fine grained, very smooth, moderately light (at 570 kg/m3 it is the same weight as Meranti ply and about 13% heavier than genuine poplar cored BS1088 Okoume). Hoop pine has a very high stress rating of F17, indicating high strength. Meranti (Lauan) ply has a stress rating of F14 and Okoume ply F8. Okoume ply is commonly coated with epoxy to increase strength and impact resistance as well as to exclude water. Both types of plywood construction are very popular with amateur builders, and many dinghies such as the Vaurien, Cherub, Tolman, Moth and P class (ply on frame construction) and FJs, FDs and Kolibris (stitch-and-glue method) have been built from it.  Another variation is tortured ply where very thin(3 mm) and flexible (often Okoume)preshaped panels ply are bent into compound curves and sewn together. Little or no framework or longitudinal wood is used. This method is mainly confined to kayaks.
 * Cold moulding is a composite method of wooden boat building that uses two or more layers of thin wood, called veneers, oriented in different directions, resulting in a strong monocoque structure, similar to a fibreglass hull but substantially lighter. Sometimes composed of a base layer of strip planking followed by multiple veneers. Sometimes just veneers are used. Cold-moulding is popular in small, medium and very large, wooden super-yachts. Using different types of wood, the builder can lighten some areas such as bow and stern and strengthen other high-stress areas. Sometimes cold-moulded hulls are protected either inside or out or both with fibreglass or similar products for impact resistance, especially when lightweight, soft timber such as cedar is used. This method lends itself to great flexibility in hull shape. Cold-moulded refers to a type of building one-off hulls using thin strips of wood applied to a series of forms at 45-degree angles to the centerline. This method is often called double-diagonal because a minimum of two layers is recommended, each occurring at opposing 45-degree angles. The "hot-moulded" method of building boats, which used ovens to heat and cure the resin, has not been widely used since World War II; and now almost all curing is done at room temperature.

 * Lashed-lug, is a boat-building techniques of the Austronesian peoples. It is characterized by the use of sewn holes and later dowels ("treenails") to stitch planks edge-to-edge. The planks are further lashed together and onto ribs with fiber ropes wrapped around protruding carved lugs on the inside surfaces. This is a shell-first (or planking first) method of construction The seams between planks are also sealed with absorbent tapa bark and fiber that expands when wet or caulked with resin-based preparations.

Iron and steel
Either used in sheet or alternatively, plate for all-metal hulls or for isolated structural members. It is strong, but heavy (despite the fact that the thickness of the hull can be less). It is generally about 30% heavier than aluminium and somewhat more heavy than polyester. The material rusts unless protected from water (this is usually done by means of a covering of paint). Modern steel components are welded or bolted together. As the welding can be done very easily (with common welding equipment), and as the material is very cheap, it is a popular material with amateur builders. Also, amateur builders which are not yet well established in building steel ships may opt for DIY construction kits. If steel is used, a zinc layer is often applied to coat the entire hull. It is applied after sandblasting (which is required to have a cleaned surface) and before painting. The painting is usually done with lead paint (Pb3O4). Optionally, the covering with the zinc layer may be left out, but it is generally not recommended. Zinc anodes also need to be placed on the ship's hull. Until the mid-1900s, steel sheets were riveted together.

Aluminum
Aluminum and aluminum alloys are used both in sheet form for all-metal hulls or for isolated structural members. Many sailing spars are frequently made of aluminium after 1960. It is the lightest material for building large boats (being 15–20% lighter than polyester and 30% lighter than steel). Aluminium is relatively cheap in comparison with wood or steel in most countries. In addition it is relatively easy to cut, bend and weld. Galvanic corrosion below the waterline in salt water is a serious concern, particularly in marinas where there are other conflicting metals. Aluminium is most commonly found in yachts, pontoon and power boats that are not kept permanently in the water. Aluminium yachts are particularly popular in France.

Cupronickel
A relatively expensive metal used only very occasionally in boatbuilding is cupronickel. Arguably the ideal metal for boat hulls, cupronickel is reasonably tough, highly resistant to corrosion in seawater, and is (because of its copper content) a very effective antifouling metal. Cupronickel may be found on the hulls of premium tugboats, fishing boats and other working boats; and may even be used for propellers and propeller shafts.

Fiberglass
Fiberglass (glass-reinforced plastic or GRP) is typically used for production boats because of its ability to reuse a female mould as the foundation for the shape of the boat. The resulting structure is strong in tension but often needs to be either laid up with many heavy layers of resin-saturated fiberglass or reinforced with wood or foam in order to provide stiffness. GRP hulls are largely free of corrosion though not normally fireproof. These can be solid fiberglass or of the sandwich (cored) type, in which a core of balsa, foam or similar material is applied after the outer layer of fiberglass is laid to the mould, but before the inner skin is laid. This is similar to the next type, composite, but is not usually classified as composite, since the core material in this case does not provide much additional strength. It does, however, increase stiffness, which means that less resin and fiberglass cloth can be used in order to save weight. Most fibreglass boats are currently made in an open mould, with fibreglass and resin applied by hand (hand-lay-up method). Some are now constructed by vacuum infusion where the fibres are laid out and resin is pulled into the mould by atmospheric pressure. This can produce stronger parts with more glass and less resin, but takes special materials and more technical knowledge. Older fibreglass boats before 1990 were often not constructed in controlled temperature buildings leading to the widespread problem of fibreglass pox, where seawater seeped through small holes and caused delamination. The name comes from the multitude of surface pits in the outer gelcoat layer which resembles smallpox. Sometimes the problem was caused by atmospheric moisture being trapped in the layup during construction in humid weather.

Composite material
"Composite construction" involves a variety of composite materials and methods: an early example was a timber carvel skin attached to a frame and deck beams made of iron. Sheet copper anti-fouling ("copper=bottomed") could be attached to a wooden hull provided the risk of galvanic corrosion was minimised. Fast cargo vessels once were copper-bottomed to prevent being slowed by marine fouling. GRP and ferrocement hulls are classic composite hulls, the term "composite" applies also to plastics reinforced with fibers other than glass. When a hull is being created in a female mould, the composite materials are applied to the mould in the form of a thermosetting plastic (usually epoxy, polyester, or vinylester) and some kind of fiber cloth (fiberglass, kevlar, dynel, carbon fiber, etc.). These methods can give strength-to-weight ratios approaching that of aluminum, while requiring less specialized tools and construction skills.

Ferrocement
First developed in the mid-19th century in both France and Holland, ferrocement was also used for the D-Day Mulberry harbours. After a buzz of excitement among homebuilders in the 1960s, ferro building has since declined.

Ferrocement is a relatively cheap method to produce a hull, although unsuitable for commercial mass production. A steel and iron "armature" is built to the exact shape of the hull, ultimately being covered in galvanised chicken netting. Then, on a single day, the cement is applied by a team of plasterers. The cement:sand ratio is a very rich 4:1. As the hull thickness is typically 2.5 to 3 cms, ferrocement is unsuitable for boats less than about 15 metres LOA as there is a weight penalty; above that length there is no penalty. Properly plastered ferrocement boats have smooth hulls with fine lines, and amateur builders are advised to use professional plasterers to produce a smooth finish. In the 1960s and 1970s, particularly in Australia and New Zealand, the cheapness of ferro construction encouraged amateur builders to build hulls larger than they could afford, not anticipating that the fitting-out costs of a larger boat can be crippling.

The advantages of a ferro hull are:
 * cannot burn, rot, or rust; & no osmosis
 * good insulation: cool in summer, warm in winter
 * tougher than GRP, and almost as tough as a steel vessel; (and if damaged, easily repaired almost anywhere in the world)
 * properly built, a ferro hull is as fair as a GRP hull.
 * they may be cheap to buy (see disadvantages, below)

The disadvantages are:
 * many home-built ferro boats are lumpy, overweight and ugly.
 * some early builders, realising that their creation proved to be disappointing, scuttled their vessels and fraudulently claimed insurance.
 * accordingly, ferro yachts may be difficult to sell and nigh impossible to insure.

See also: concrete ship, concrete canoe.

Hull types
There are many hull types, and a builder should choose the most appropriate one for the boat's intended purpose. For example, a sea-going vessel needs a hull which is more stable and robust than a hull used in rivers and canals. Hull types include:

 * Smooth curve hull: these are rounded and free of chines or corners.
 * Chined hulls: these hulls have flat panels (typically plywood) which meet at a sharp angle known as the "chine". Chined hulls range from simple flat-bottomed boats where the topsides and bottom meet at about 110 degrees (such as banks dories and sharpies) to skiffs where the bottom is arced rather than flat. Multi-chine hulls allow an approximation of a round hull shape.
 * Flat-bottomed hull: flat-bottomed hulls are suitable for canals and non-tidal rivers. They are often shallow-draft, and may operate in shallower water. They are cheap to build but, being less stable and having no keel to give directional stability, they are unsuitable for sea-going vessels. (However, large ships are almost always flat bottomed, having a suitably large draft to overcome the problems of small flat-bottomed boats).
 * Displacement hulls: a displacement hull always remains partly submerged. Such a hull has a maximum "hull speed" which is a function of its waterline length. An exception is the catamaran, whose twin hulls are usually so fine that they do not engender a bow wave.
 * Planing hulls: planing hulls have a shape that allows the boat to rise out of the water as the speed increases. Sail boats that plane are typical V-shaped at the bows and flat-bottomed aft. Hydroplanes are very light, flat bottomed, high powered speed boats that plane easily on flat water, but they become unstable in rough water. Powerboats designed for rough water are usually deep V-bottomed with a deadrise angle of about 20–23 degrees. The most common form is to have at least one chine to allow for stability when cornering and for a supportive surface on which to ride while planing. Planing hulls allow much higher speeds to be achieved, as they are not limited by the waterline length the way displacement hulls are. Planing hulls need sufficient power to "reach the plane", after which the lack of drag allows high speeds yet with reduced power consumption.

Glossary

 * Anchor: a device for holding a boat to the seabed, typically with chain and rope. Traditional anchors include the fisherman, Danforth, and plough types (such as the "CQR" and "Delta"). Recently, far more effective anchors with more reliable holding include the "Rocna" and the "Ultra", both of which are spade anchors.
 * Bitts: a pair of short strong posts of wood or steel on the deck of a boat intended to take mooring lines. Also called "bollards".
 * Bilge: the lowest part of the interior of a hull. Water, fuel tanks, ballast, and heavy stores are variously placed in the bilge to lower the craft's centre of gravity.
 * Bilge keels: a pair of short keels fitted on either side of the hull. Less hydro-dynamically efficient than a fin keel, they have a shallower draft. Full-length bilge keels add rigidity to a hull. Bilge keel craft are found in areas with large tidal ranges to keep the vessel upright when dried out.
 * Bilge pump: a manual or electric pump for draining the bilge. Set at the lowest point, its inlet is protected by a screen to minimize blockages.
 * Block: a pulley used to give a line a fair lead and multiply its hauling power. Single and double sheave blocks are common, triple rare.
 * Bobstay: a stay attached between the stem and outer end of a bowsprit to prevent it from rising under the tension of sail.
 * Bow: The forward end of a watercraft.
 * Bowsprit: a spar that extends forward of the stem to provide an anchor for a jib.
 * Breasthook: A roughly triangular component located immediately aft of the stem and between the inwales, sheer clamps, or rails of a small boat.
 * Bulkhead: internal transverse walls dividing a hull.
 * Bulwarks: topsides which extend above the deck, often capped with a rail and fitted with scuppers.
 * Cam cleat: a mechanical device for holding a line fast between two spring-loaded jaws.
 * Catheads: timbers protruding approximately at right angles from the foredeck to support an anchor outboard of the hull.
 * Capstan a vertical winch secured to the foredeck, used primarily to hoist an anchor.
 * Carlin: a longitudinal strip parallel to, but inboard of, the inwale (sheer clamp) for supporting the inboard edge of the side deck and the side of the cabin cladding.
 * Chainplate: a metal bracket through-bolted through the hull for anchoring a shroud.
 * Centreboard: (also dagger board) a movable keel which may be raised and lowered to accommodate shallow water and point of sail. It is held in place within a centerboard trunk.
 * Chine: the part of a hull at the turn of the bilge. It may be "hard" (i.e. sharply angled) or "soft" (gradually contoured). A chine made of a single timber is known as a chine log.
 * Cleat: a fitting designed to tie off lines. The most common form has a central anchor point and opposing protrusions for taking turns of a line. Also cam and jam cleats.
 * Coaming: any vertical surface on a ship designed to deflect or prevent entry of water
 * Cockpit: the seating area aft in a small decked vessel where the helm is.
 * Counter stern: a stern rising well above the waterline ending in a point or rounded contour rather than a vertical transom. A variation is the "truncated counter".
 * Companionway: a passage, fitted with either steps or a ladder, for transiting between decks.
 * Crosstree: a form of spreader mounted athwarts a mast for attaching or tensioning shrouds or stays.
 * Deck: a structure covering part or all of a hull, supported by beams.
 * Deck beam: A beam for supporting the deck.
 * Dolphin striker: a short downward-facing spar fitted mid-way along a bowsprit to tension the bobstay.
 * Dorade box: a ventilation intake consisting of a pivoting cowling atop a deck mounted self-draining box, named after the 1931 yacht Dorade where it was first used.
 * Epoxy resin: a two-part thermosetting polymer increasingly used in modern wooden boat building variously as an adhesive, filler (admixed with other materials), and a moisture-resistant barrier in hull and deck construction, sometimes applied in conjunction with reinforcing cloths such as fibreglass, kevlar or carbon fibre.
 * Fairlead: a deck fitting for redirecting a line and minimizing chafe.
 * Fiddle (or fiddle rail). a low rail on a counter, stove, or table for preventing items from sliding off when the boat is heeled at sea. Catamarans have less need than monohulls for fiddles.
 * Freeboard: the part of the hull between the waterline and deck of a vessel.
 * Furling headsail: a jib or other headsail attached to a rotating mechanism that furls and unfurls it, manually or automatically.
 * Garboard: the strake immediately on either side of the keel.
 * Gimbal: a device that allows a stove or compass to self-level by pivoting in two horizontal planes simultaneously.
 * Gooseneck: a pivoting metal fitting that joins a boom to a mast. Many goosenecks can be adjusted to trim the luff of a sail.
 * Grab rail: an extended horizontal handhold, usually atop a cabin.
 * Gudgeon: the female part of a pintle-and-gudgeon pivot or hinge, characteristically used to attach a rudder to a vessel.
 * Gunwale: (pronounced "gunnel") the upper longitudinal structural member of the hull, typically fitted with scuppers to drain the deck.
 * Hatch: an opening in the deck or cabin of a vessel, with a hinged, sliding, or removable cover.
 * Heads: a marine toilet, deriving from toileting at the catsheads in square rigger days.
 * Hull: the bottom and sides of a vessel.
 * Inwale (or "sheer clamp"): the upper, inner longitudinal structural member of the hull, to which topside panels are fixed.
 * Keel: the main structural member of a traditional vessel, running fore and aft from bow to stern on its centerline. It provides ballast for stability, and resistance to leeway moving through the water.
 * Keelson: an internal beam fixed to the top of the keel to strengthen the joint of the upper members of the boat to the keel.
 * King plank: the central board of a foredeck. Its sides are notched to receive the tapered forward ends of deck planking so that no end grain is exposed.
 * Knee: a short L-shaped piece of wood that joins or strengthens the joint in boat parts that meet between roughly 60 and 120 degrees. It may be a natural crook from a suitable wood species, sawn from a larger piece of timber, or laminated to size. Commonly used on thwarts to join topsides or keelsons to join transoms. A hanging knee sits upright beneath a thwart to support it. Hanging knees often support carlins where a full frame would be inconvenient.
 * Locker: an enclosed storage space
 * Mast: a large vertical spar which supports the sails. It may be supported by standing rigging, but some rigs (such a junks) have unstayed masted.
 * Mast step: a socket to take the downward thrust of the mast and hold it in position. May be on the keel or on the deck in smaller craft. A deck-stepped mast may be supported by a column below the deck.
 * Mizzen: the aftmost mast and sail in a yawl or ketch, or in a vessel with three or more masts.
 * Oar a wooden pole enlarged on one end to resist the water when pulled.
 * Painter: a short line at the bow of a small boat for tying it off.
 * Parrot beak: a spring-loaded stainless steel fitting on the end of a spinnaker pole attaching it to the sail.
 * Pintle: the male half of a pintle-and-gudgeon pivot or hinge.
 * Ratlines (traditionally ratlins): lines woven horizontally between the shrouds of a square-rigged ship to provide footholds for ascending to the yards.
 * Rib: a thin strip of pliable timber laid athwarts inside a hull from inwale to inwale at regular close intervals to reinforce its planking. Ribs differ from frames or futtocks in being far smaller dimensions and bent in place compared to frames or futtocks, which are normally sawn to shape, or natural crooks that are shaped to fit with an adze, axe or chisel.
 * Rigging: standing rigging (either "stays" or shrouds") are the wire cables or rods that support the mast(s). Running rigging are the ropes ("sheets") to control the sails.
 * Rowlock (pronounced "rollock";(also "oarlock"): a U-shaped metal device that secures an oar and acts as a fulcrum during the motion of rowing.
 * Rudder: a hinged vertical plate at the stern for steering a craft. There may be more than one rudder.
 * Sampson post: a strong vertical post which supports a ship's windlass and the heel of its bowsprit, also used to making off mooring lines.
 * Scuppers: gaps in the bulwarks permitting water to drain off the deck.
 * Shackle: a U-shaped fitting secured by a removable pin for securely connecting chains, lines, and other fittings. Known as a "snap shackle" when fitted with a spring-loaded pin.
 * Sheave box: a plastic or stainless steel box that holds a pulley that is fixed in position as on a mast head.
 * Sheer: the generally curved shape of the upper hull. It is traditionally lowest amidships to maximize freeboard at the ends of the hull. Sheer can be reverse, higher in the middle to maximize space inside, or straight or a combination of shapes.
 * Sheet: a line which controls the clew of a sail.
 * Skeg: a vertical blade beneath the hull, typically to support and protect the rudder and to promote the rudder's efficiency by preventing "stalling".
 * Spar: s length of timber, aluminium, steel or carbon fibre of approximately round or pear shaped cross-section which supports a sail or sails. Spars include the mast, boom, gaff, yard, bowsprit, prod, boomkin, pole and dolphin striker.
 * Sole: the floor of a cabin or cockpit.
 * Spinnaker (or "kite"): a large, lightweight, down-wind sail used on fore and aft rigged yachts such as sloops to dramatically increase sail area typically used running with the wind.
 * Spring: the amount of fore and aft curvature in the keel.
 * Stanchions: a post for holding life lines on a deck.
 * Stainless steel: a corrosion-resistant alloy of mild steel and small percentages of such metals as copper, chromium, molybdenum, and nickel. Common alloys are "18/8" (known as "surgical stainless steel") and "316" ("marine grade"), which contains more salt-water resistant nickel.
 * Stays/shrouds: standing or running rigging which holds a spar in position (e.g. forestay, backstay, bobstay). Formerly made of rope, typically of braided stainless steel wire, occasionally solid metal rod.
 * Stem: a continuation of the keel upwards at the bow where the two sides of the hull meet.
 * Stern: the aftmost part of a boat, often ending in a transom.
 * Stern sheets a flat area or deck, inboard of the transom in a small boat. It may contain hatches to access below decks or provide storage on deck for life saving equipment.
 * Strake: planking, running from the "garboard" strake affixed to the keel to the "sheer" strake below the caprail.
 * Stringer (also "batten"): a long relatively thin, knot free length of wood, running fore and aft, often used to reinforce planking on the inside of the hull.
 * Synthetic rope: lines manufactured from chained chemicals. The four most common are: polyester (including brand names Dacron and Terylene), a strong, low stretch line, usually plaited (braided) used for running rigging; nylon, a strong but elastic line resistant to shock loads, best suited for mooring lines and anchor warps. It is usually laid (twisted) so to make it easier to grip when hauling; polypropylene, a light, cheap, slippery, buoyant line, typically laid, which is by far the weakest of the four, and deteriorates when exposed to sunlight. Commonly used on commercial fishing boats using nets; and Kevlar, an extremely strong and expensive fibre with almost no stretch, usually braided and best suited for halyards.
 * Taff rail: a railing at the extreme stern of a vessel.
 * Thwart: a transverse member used to maintain the shape of the topsides of a small boat, often doubling as a seat.
 * Tiller: a forward-facing attached to the rudder allowing a helmsman to steer a boat. On a dinghy, the tiller may have a hinged extension called a "jigger".
 * Toe rail: an upright longitudinal strip of wood surrounding a deck near the sheer, especially forward, for safety and to provide purchase when a boat is heeled.
 * Topping lift: a line running from a cleat on the mast through a block at the masthead and down to the aft end of a boom for supporting the boom when not in use or when reefing.
 * Topsides: the side planking of a boat from the waterline to the sheerstrake.
 * Transom: a vertical part of the hull at the stern. Transoms provide width and additional buoyancy at the stern. Dinghies may attach an outboard motor to the transom.
 * Warp: anchor line, traditionally made of stiff natural fibre such as hemp, today of stronger, lighter, synthetic fibres such as laid nylon, prized for its elasticity in absorbing shock loads on an anchor.
 * Winch: a geared device providing both friction and mechanical advantage in sail trimming, hoisting large sails, and retrieving an anchor. Some winches are self-tailing, allowing efficient one-man usage, others electrically powered.
 * Wind pennant: a small pivoting masthead wind indicator.
 * Yard: a horizontal spar on a square rigged ship fitted to the forward side of a mast, holding a square sail forward of the shrouds. An extension to the yard is the "yard-arm".

title: Boat building


text:
Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Anthony DiPierro

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text:
Alfonso XIII (disambiguation)

Alfonso XIII (1886–1941) was a king of Spain.

Alfonso XIII may refer to:
 * Spanish cruiser Alfonso XIII, a Spanish Navy cruiser of the late 19th and early 20th centuries
 * Spanish battleship Alfonso XIII, a Spanish Navy dreadnought battleship in commission from 1915 to 1937
 * Alfonso XIII (Madrid Metro), a station on the Madrid Metro
 * Alfonso XIII Tunnel, one of the Vielha Tunnels in north-west Catalonia

title: Alfonso XIII (disambiguation)