The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the Tamil Nadu government to make the study of Tamil epic Tirukkural compulsory in schools starting from the upcoming academic year. The Tirukkural is a piece of classic Sangam literature containing more than 1,000 couplets by poet Tiruvalluvar. The court was hearing a plea that said crimes in the state had increased manifold and that including the Tirukkural in schools would improve children’s moral values.

The state had made Tamil a compulsory language in schools in 2006, and around 250 couplets from the classic were already being taught to children. However, the court ordered that the Tirukkural be made a separate subject altogether, so that students between Class 6 and Class 12 learnt the couplets in depth and not superficially, The Hindu reported.

Justice R Mahadevan, in his ruling, said the spurt in crimes made him think moral science classes in school were insufficient, and that an understanding of the Tirukkural “could streamline the character of an individual right from childhood”.