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Rao Sabeb C. S. Shrinivasachari
eight qualities ). The commentator of Nilakesi, a Jaina work, that is being edited by Mr. C. S. Mallinath Jain, calls the Kural "our own Bible " Jaina tradition is that a sage, Elacharya, was the author of the great work, and some identify this personage with the great Sri Kunda Kooda Acharya' who is said to have composed the Panchastikaya for the edification of a King of Kanchi. Tiruvalluvar, according to another tradition, had for his friend, Elala or Elara Singha of Ceylon who flourished in the latter half of the second century B. C. Europeans have been inclined to find Christian influeices in his teaching. If the identity of Tiruvalluvar with Sri Kunda Kunda should be possible, the prevalence of the Jaina faith among the Tamils in the first centuries of the Christian era becomes greatly strengthened.
Madura was the chief centre of the Jaina faith in the pre-revivalist epoch, though we hear of Jaina inonasteries at Kaverippattinam, the old capital of the Cholas, at the mouth of the river Kaveri, and at Uraiyur, near Trichinopoly. The author of the Epic of the Anklet was also a Jaina, and Jaina nuns preached to and exercised influence over women. The Jainas were mostly of the Digambara persuasion, and the Nigrantha system was more popular than the Bauddha creed."
The view has been generally accepted that Jainism had been known in South India even in the third and fourth centuries before Christ and Jaina settlements should have flourished in the land in the 1st century A. D. and even before it. On the eve of the Hindu revival of the 6th and 7th centuries the position of the faith was very influential and even deep-rooted. It is easy to the continuity of Jaina elements in the Saiva hagiology, of Jaina ideas of conduct in the life of the upper classes of the population and of Jaina monasti. cism in our mutt organisation etc.
1 For his date & works see my friend Mr. A. Upadhya's learned introduction to Pravachana-Sara ably edited by hiin & published by Parama-shruta-prabhavaka mandala Shroff - bazar, Bombay. Editor.
2 Excepting Dharmastikāya, other Jaina credal points are supposed to be embodied in the well known Tamil epics.
Shatabdi Granth ]
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