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whose zeal for true learning aud culture alone enabled me to carry on my studies, the results of which are embodied in this little volume and to our revered Principal M.R.Ry. Y. Narashimham Pantulu Garu, M.A., F.M.U., whose inspiration and love of research, encouraged me at every step in my undertaking. If I have, therefore, failed in my purpose to throw light on one of the sequestered corners of South Indian History and trace the early history of one of the innumerable religious sects of India-that, alas! now occupy an obscure position, it is not due to lack of support, financial or otherwise; on the part of the College management.
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To my readers I have to offer a word of explanation. These "Studies" do not, by any means, pretend to be a final or full account of the Jains in South India. The time is not yet when such a work can be confidently undertaken. If the Brahmi and cave inscriptions of the Madura and Ramnad Districts can be correctly and incontrovertibly interpreted, if milestones in the long history of Tamil literature, admittedly the oldest of the Dravidian literatures, can be firmly plarfted and if the vague mass of tradition about the existence and activities of the famous Madura Academy, known as the Tamil Sangam, can be proved to be true and its date fixed even approximately beyond doubt or controversy, one may claim to be proceeding on the right road towards
