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## A Glimpse of Virtues | 17
Your exceptional affection and love, and the extraordinary abilities you attained in them, are not hidden from scholars. The very 'science of praise' itself indicates your unique mastery of words, or your dominion over words. All your works that have been available so far are in Sanskrit. But this should not lead anyone to believe that you did not compose works in other languages, for you surely did; because all the ancient poets of the Kannada language, in their Kannada poems, have praised you profusely as an excellent poet. * And since you were born in the Tamil country, Tamil was your mother tongue. It is natural for you to have composed works in it. Nevertheless, your indelible mark was on Sanskrit literature. In South India, your name is particularly mentioned among those who encouraged, promoted, and disseminated high-quality Sanskrit knowledge. From your time, a special era begins in the history of Sanskrit literature X; and it is through this that your name is immortal in the history of Sanskrit literature. Indeed, your knowledge has illuminated the whole of India once. At a time when the Buddhists, etc., were
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* Mr. S.S. Ramaswami Aiyangar, M.A., in his book 'Studies in South Indian Jainism', based on the Bombay Gazetteer, Volume 1, Part 2, page 406, writes that "Samantbhadra's appearance in South India marks an epoch not only in the annals of Digambar Tradition, but also in the history of Sanskrit literature."
x See 'History of Kannada Literature' and 'Karnataka Kavicharita'.
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