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JAINA MANUSCRIPTS
Dr. C.K. Sivaprakasan Reader & Head, Dept. of History, Sri Pushpam College, Poondi, Thanjavur.
Jaina religion is one of the cultural streams of the ancient and enduring civilization of the Indian sub-continent. Tamil Nadu in peninsular India had been the seat of Jaina religion a few centuries before the advent of the Christian era. This region has fostered many religions, their institutions, philosophy and literary traditions, even those of North Indian origin. No doubt, Jainism has a chequered history in the land of the Tamils, but it continues to flourish in some pockets of the region, particularly in Northern Tamilnadu.
Of all the sources that help us in reconstructing the study of Jaina Archaeology in Tamilnadu, Manuscripts form a class among themselves.
Many manuscripts of Jaina religion in Tamilnadu have literary tinge. But those manuscripts included in the Mackenzie collections have a bearing on the socio-cultural aspects of the history of Jainism in Tamilnadu. This study is mainly confined to the Jaina Manuscripts of Mackenzie collections.
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