Unknown Pilgrims

SR No.: 007014
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: N Shanta
Publisher: Sri Satguru Publications Delhi
Publication Year: 1997
Total Pages: 820
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 249

The Followers of the Ever Growing One
229
re The Tirukkural, a text made up of aphorisms and remarkable for the sublime ideal it lays before the reader; a highly respected and extremely popular guide-book, whose author, if not himself a Jaina, had certainly been strongly influenced by the ahiṁsā-dharma.272
- The Náladiyār, a well-known ethical work with a Jaina flavour,273 as have also several texts belonging to the eighteen collections of didactic writings. 274
- The Jivaka-cintamani, the Valaiyāpati and the Cilappatikāram, three of the five great Poems which are of undoubted Jaina authorship.275
- Five less important Poems which are probably of Jaina authorship, Yaśödhara being the work of a muni.276
- As the Tirukkural possesses a unique character and is of considerable importance, we shall try to make a brief survey of it and to disengage from it certain ideas that seem to have been inspired by the Jaina dharma. These ideas fit harmoniously into the rest of the work of which one of the principal characteristics is its universality of outlook, for it touches on all aspects of human life, without any trace of sectarianism, either religious or social.
272 Cf. Chakravarti, ibid., pp. 28-40; Meenakshisundaram, 1969. Here again opinions differ as to its author and what religion he professed. Cf. Upadhye, PSa, Introd., pp. 19-20, where he examines closely the bases of the opinion: "Kundakunda as author of Kural", without coming to a definite conclusion.
273 Cf. Chakravarti, ibid., pp. 40-44.
274 Ibid., pp. 44-48. According to Chakravarti (p. 27) the ethical works such as the Kural and the Nāladiyār, are of earlier date than the poetic works.
275 Ibid., pp 48-83; the text of the Vaļaiyāpati is lost.
276 Ibid., pp. 83-109.