________________
JAINA LITERATURE IN TAMIL
41
the Bible of the cultivators. It is not the work of a single author. Tradition supposes that each verse is composed by a separate Jaina monk. The current tradition is briefly this. Once upon a time 8000 Jaina ascetics, driven by famine in the north, migrated to to the Pāņdyan country whose king supported them. When the period of famine was over they wanted to return to their country, while the king desired to retain these scholars at his court. At last the ascetics resolved to depart secretly without the knowledge of the king. Thus they left in a body one night. In the next morning it was found that each had left on his seat a palm leaf containing a quatrain. The king ordered them to be thrown into the river Vaigai, when it was found that some of the palm leaves were seen swimming up the river against the current and came to the bank. These were collected by the order of the king and this collection is known by the name Nalaţiyār. We are not in a position to estimate the amount of historical truth contained in this tradition. We have to connect these 8000 Jaina ascetics with the followers of Bhadrabāhu who migrated to the south on account of the 12 years famine in northern India ; and this would place the composition of this work somewhere about the 3rd century B.C. We cannot dogmatise upon it. All that we can say, with a certain amount of certainty, is that it is one of the earliest didactic works in the Tamil language and is probably of the same age or slightly
1. See G. U. Pope : Ibid., p. vii.
2. G. U. Pope : Ibid., p. viii; M. S. Ramaswami Ayyangar : op. cit., pp. 56-67.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
