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128
A. CHAKRAVARTI :
it is a translation of that Sanskrit work. There is a commentary on this work by one Guņasāgara who was probably a contemporary of this Amộtasāgara. Probably they both belonged to the same Jaina Sangha. That it is an important work on prosody, that it is considered as an authority on metres and poetic composition, and that it is used as such by later writers are evident from the references to it found in Tamil literature.
Yāpparungala Viruttit :- This is also a work on Tamil prosody written by the same author, Amộtasāgara. There is an excellent edition of this Yapparungala-virutti by the late S. Bhavanandam Pillai.
Nemināthamo: A work on Tamil grammar by Guņavīra-pandita. It is called Neminātham because it was composed at Mylapore, the seat of the Jaina temple of Nēminātha. The author Guņavīrapandita was a disciple of Vaccananda-muni of Kalandai. The object of this work is to give a short
1. “Yapparungalam...is a rare and comparatively old Tamil treatise on Tamil prosody. Besides treating completely of the ancient and pure Tamil metres, it analyses the whole extent of the new Kalithurai and Viruttain metres, classifies and groups them all scientifically. The text contains only ninetysix aphorisms ranging froin one to twentynine lines in length. ...... There is clear evidence to prove that the composition of the text of Yapparungalam must have taken place either at the beginning or in the middle of the tenth century A.D.” (Yāpparungalam, Text and commentary, Ed. by S. Bhavanandam Pillai, Madras, 1916, Editorial Preface, pp. vii-viii).
2. See p. 127, footnote 1, item (1) above.
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