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ᏟᎻᎪᏢᎢᎬᎡ V.
MODERN PERIOD. After the Saiva Nāyanārs •and Vaishnava Alvars, there'came the great Acharyas or theolo- The rise of
Acharyas. gical doctors who aided the evolution of Hindu religion a great deal. The earliest of these . Acharyas. Sankarachārya (8th century A.D.), turned his attention towards the north, thus indicating that the Jains had ceased to be an important factor in the religious life of South India. The Jains, after their persecution in the Pallava and Pandyan kingdoms, migrated in large numbers to their favorite religious centre, Sravana Belgola, in Mysore. There they sought refuge under the Ganga Rajas who patronised them. The few that remained in the Tamil land led an obscure life devoid of all political influence in the country. Nevertheless they retained, in full their intellectual vitality which had in earlier times produced such classical works as Kural and Silappadikāram. Thus during this period of Jain decadence, Chintāmani, one of the Mahākāvyās, was composed by the Jain saint, Tirutakkadēvar. The famous Tamil grammarian and Jaill, Pavanandi, published his Nannūl in the 13th century A.D., the patron who supported him being Seeyagangan, evidently a Ganga prince. Besides these they were also responsible for the publication of many books on grammar, lexicon, and astronomy. A detailed account of the literature
