Jaina Literature in Tamil

SR No.: 001627
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: A Chakravarti, K V Ramesh
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith
Publication Year: 1974
Total Pages: 258
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Literature, & Religion
File Size: 12 MB

Page 67

A. CHAKRAVARTI :
earlier than the Kural. The 400 isolated stanzas are arranged according to a certain plan after the model of the Kural. Each chapter consists of 10 stanzas. The first part on aram i.e., dharma, consists of 13 chapters and 130 quatrains. The second section on poruļ i.e., artha, contains 26 chapters and 260 quatrains; and the 3rd chapter on 'love' contains 10 quatrains. Thus 400 quatrains are arranged into 3 sections. This arrangement is attributed by one tradition to the Pāņdya king, Ugraperuvaludi,' and by another tradition to the Jaina scholar named Padumaņār. Of the 18 didactic works in the Tamil language Kural and Naladiyār are considered to be the most important. The moral principles enunciated in this work are accepted by all classes without any difference of caste or religion. The traditional course of Tamil study necessarily involves the study of these two works.
1. According to tradition only Aganāņūsu and not Naladiyār was caused to be compiled by Ugraperuvaludi. See P.T. Srinivasa Iyengar : op cit., p. 156; M. Rajamanikkanar: op cit., p. 129. On the other hand, M. S. Purnalingam Pillai (Tamil Litetature, 1929, p. 68) speaks of a tradition according to which Naladiyār was compiled under the auspices of the Sangam established by Vajranandi, a Jaina, at Madurai, in about 450 A.D. The origin of this tradition, obviously quite a late one, must be attributed to the confusion which characterises the legend of the Sangams.
2. G. U. Pope : The Naladiyār or The Four Hundred Quatrains in Tamil, Oxford, 1893, General Introduction, p. ix; V. R. Ramachandra Dikshitar: op cit., pp. 38-39.
3. i.e. 'Padinen-kilkkaņakku, which is generally rendered into English as 'The eighteen minor poems'. For a list of the 18 works and their authors, see M. S. Purnalingam Pillai: op cit., p. 68.