________________
NIGRANTHAS.
47
of the Jains
Age.
references to Jain centres of learning, and the description of the society in general, leave no doubt in the minds of the readers of the epics, the impression that the religion of Arhat was embraced by large and ever increasing numbers of the Dravidians.
We shall next examine the position held by the position the Jains during this Academic age with the in the help of references to them in Silappadikāram and
Academic Manimēkalai. These epics are specially valuable as records of the extent to which the nonBrahminical religions, Jainism and Buddhism, had spread in South India in the early part of the second century A.D. The epics give one the impression that these two religions were patronised by the Chola as well as by the Pandyan kings. The Nigranthas, as the Jains were called, generally lived outside the towns “in their own cool cloisters, the walls of which were exceedingly high and painted red and which were surrounded by little flower-gardens”; their temples were situate at places where two or three roads met ; they erected their platforms or pulpits from which they generally preached their doctrine. Side by side with their monàsteries, there also existed nunneries showing thereby the vast influence exercised over the Tamil women by Jain nuns. There were Jain monasteries at Kavirippoompattinam, the capital of the Cholas, and at Urai.yur on the banks of the Cauvery. Madura, 'however, was the chief centre of Jainism. When
