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JAINA LITERATURE IN TAMIL
devotion to her husband. Since the story is associated with the attempt to sell the anklet or Silambu in Madurai, the capital of the Pāņdyan kingdom and the consequent tragedy, the work is called the epic of the anklet or Silambu. Since the three great kingdoms are involved in this story, the author who is a Cēra prince elaborately describes all the three great capitals Puhār, Madurai and Vañji, the last being the capital of the Cēra empire.
The author of this work, l?argõvadigaļ, was the younger son of the Cēra king Cēralādan whose capital was Vañji. llargāvaļiga! was the younger brother of Senguțțuvan, the ruling king after Cēralādan. Hence the name l?argo, the younger prince. After he became an ascetic he was called lļangövadiga!, the term adigaļ being an honorific term referring to an ascetic. One day when this ascetic prince was in the temple of Jina situated at Vañji, the capital, some members of the hill tribe went to him and narrated to him the strange vision which they had witnessed relating to the heroine Kaņņaki. How they had witnessed on the hill a lady who had lost one of her breasts, how Indra appeared before her, how her husband Kõvalan was introduced to her as a dēva, and how finally Indra carried both of them in a divine chariot : all these were narrated to the Cēra prince in the presence of his friend and poet Kūlavāṇigan Sättan, the renowned author of Maạimēkalai. This friend narrated the full story of the hero and the heroine which was listened to
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