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42 THE JAINS IN THE TAMIL LAND.
other living beings to hear his teachings. Indra and many other Dēvas, according to them, worship the Lord, praise Him and honour Him by manifesting wonderful phenomena. One such wonder is the formation of a beautiful lotus. under the feet of the Jina, which moves along under his feet as he goes to several countries to. preach his doctrine. This is the special signifi• cance of the expression Malarınisai. yēginān.
Then again the reference to Yengunāthan (i.e., he who has eight qualities) has a special significance to the Jain. God, according to Jainism, has the following eight qualities :-1. Perfect. faith, 2. Infinite knowledge, 3. Infinite cognition, 5. Extreme fineness, 6. Interpenetrability, 7. Stationariness (quality of being neither light nor heavy) and 8. Undisturbable bliss. It is, therefore, difficult to join with those who say
that Valluvar referred to the Hindu Gods and An objection not specially to the qualities of the Jina. Anoangwered.
ther expression that was held to be destructive of the theory that the author was a Jain, is what is supposed to be contained in the 4th couplet of Chapter III in Kural. Dr. Pope, in pointing this out, says that a Jain yould not believe that Valluvar was a follower pf his faith, because a Jain sage would have neither wife nor the emotion of anger, nor the power to inflict punish
ment. But we know that one of the TirthanAnother karas married and begot children. One other evidence in favour of the evidence in favour of the Jain origin of Kural Jain origin of Kurul" might be adduced. The commentator of Nīla-'
