Jain Journal 2002 07

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

Page 55

Dr. B. K. Khadabadi : Contribution of Jainism
49 prove that Tiruvalluvar was a Jain sage, Elācārya - a disciple of Ācārya Kundakunda. Prof. Vaiyapuri Pillai simply said that he was a Jain by faith. Some modern scholars tried to show that he had real Buddhistic vision. Prof. Krishna Swamy Aiyangar tried to show that Tiruvalluvar was a Brahmin. C. Rajagopalachari held him above all religious denominations. Prof. Meenakshi Sundaram concluded that the author of the Kura! refused to be labelled with any sect.
But I for one, think that whatever could be the various regional and time-honoured meanings of the term Valluvar, Tiruvallavar was a scholarly personality of Jain religious faith, with ethico-religious equipment and poetic bent of mind. I would also humbly state that the Jaina tradition, which is history in its core, has in this case a grain of truth and not the whole truth, that Kundakundācārya alias Elācārya was the author of the Tirukkural, because Kundakundācārya, who widely moved and preached in the regions of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesha and Tamil Nadu, never wrote in any regional language, but in Prakrit alone. Moreover, this great monk could not have bothered over subjects like Artha and Kārma, that occupy considerable space in the Kural.
Then admitting that Tiruvalluvar was no doubt a Jaina by faith, I would further say that he was a Jaina house holder, a Śrāvaka, who came in close contact with a Jaina sage of the rank of Elācārya (which is post-Upādhyāya and Pre-Acārya rank in the Digambara tradition) and equipped himself with adequate knowledge of Jainism and more particularly of the ethical discipline concerning the householder as well as the ascetic. The impact of Tiruvallavar's close association with Elācārya, alongwith the sage's preachings and teachings, on him was so much effective that, although a house holder, he might have lived almost a saintly life and hence people round about the region may have called him too Elācāya after the rea! Elācarya, and this phenomenon gradually seems to have settled down as an anedote or a tradition in this area. Actually he could have been an erudite Jain householder and this act gave a shape to Part-I of the Kura!. There is ample solid internal evidence in support of this theory, which can be laid down as follows :