Jain Journal 1977 01

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 18

Tamil Puranas
--sri puranam and meru mandara puranam
RAMA KANT JAIN
The literary history of Tamil language dates back to circa 4th-3rd century B.C. and we get a number of poetic compositions of excellence in that language from the very beginning, but it appears that Purāņas in that language have had a very late origin. Tamil works with the suffix 'Puranam' are fewer in number than those in Kannada, Sanskrit and Apabhramsha. Tamil Purāņas which are available to us are said to have been produced generally in the third epoch of the literary history of that language (circa 1200-1800 A.D.). Setu Puranam, Bhagwat Puranam, Periya Puranam, Prabu Linga Lila Puranam, Sheerappuranam (by Muslim poet Nabi Muhammad), Meru-Mandara Puranam and Sri Puranam are the known important Tamil Purāṇas of the period. Purāṇa literature of other languages has also been translated into Tamil and in the modern period (beginning from 1801 A.D.) Arumuga Navalar has written several stories based on Periya Puranam. In the present paper I propose to confine myself only to the Jaina works Sri Puranam and Meru Mandara Puranam.
Sri Puranam is said to be the creation of an unknown writer. Dealing with the stories of 24 Tirthankaras, 12 Cakravartins, 9 Vasudevas, 9 Baladevas and 9 Prativasudevas the work is said to be very popular among Jainas of Tamilnadu though its manuscripts are confined to palmleaves and it has not yet come out in print on paper. This Purāṇa is written in an enchanting prose in mani-pravāla style, i.e., Tamil mixed with Sanskrit. Although we are not definite about the time of its composition it is said to have been based on the Sanskrit Mahāpurāṇa written by Jinasena and Gunabhadra and on the Kannada Trisastisalakapurusa Puranam of Camundaraya. Hence, we can assign it to a date after the 10th century A.D. As this work narrates the life stories of the above mentioned sixty-three heroes on the anology of Camundaraya's Kannada Purāṇa, it has also been named as Trisastisalakapurusa Puranam. This puranic treasure has served a basis for several isolated stories written by later Tamil writers. It may be mentioned here that there are some more Purāņas dealing with the life stories of the aforesaid 63 greatmen such as Sri Purana by Hastimalla, Triṣāṣṭilakṣaṇa Mahāpurāṇa by Mallisena, Triṣaşti-śalākā-puruṣa