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NALADIYAR.
57
that is, the Bible of the Vellalar or Agriculturists. “ These epigrams, drawn sometimes from Sanskrit sources and often forming the ground of ornate Sanskrit verses written in imitation or rivalry, have become household vords throughout all South India.” When the Iwo facts, the formation of a Digambara Jain Sangam at Madura and the large Sanskrit borrowings in composing. Nāladiyār are examined together we are led to conclude that the work must have been written after the formation of the Jain Sangam and thåt, exactly at the time when it was composed, the rivalry between the two sects Jainism and Brahminism was becoming keener and keener. Quatrain 243 pretty clearly illustrates the spirit of rivalry between the two sects and, as has been alrcady remarked, this period is that which immediately succeeded the Kalabhra interregnunr.
Thus the works published during what we have called the Sangam or Academic period clearly indicate the following points in the life and history of the Jains in the Tamil kingdoms :1.' That the Jains had probably not en
tered the extreme south of India during the days of Tolkāppiyar who
must hava flourished before 350 B.C. 2. That they must have colonised and
permanently settled in the extreme south of India duringo and before the first century A.D.
