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JAINA BIBLIOGRAPHY
1723
Antiquity of the Jains—a section among the Aryans opposed to the religions of sacrifice. The eastern Aryans were opposed to the sacrificial ritualism and were led by Ksatriya heroes who were believers in Ahiṁsā doctrine and as such were the forefathers of the Jainas.
Tamil literature refers to the 3 Sangams or Academies under whose guidance Tamil literature was cultivated. In the earlier works supposed to be Sangam literature the several collections such as the 8 collections, the 10 idylls etc., there is no reference to Sangam literature. The modern oriental scholars conclude that the whole tradition is fictious and was created by some fertile imagination. After elaborate discussion Mr. Sivaraja Pillar in his 'Chronology of the Early Tamils' writes about the Sangam tradition as entirely apocryphal and not deserving any serious historical consideration, the eigth century tradition is a faint reflex of the earlier sangam movements of the Jains. Vajranandi, a Jain grammarian and scholar went over to Madura with the object of founding a sangam there. That sangam could not have been anything else than a college of Jaina ascetscs and scholars engaged in a religious propaganda of their own. This movement must have first brought in the idea of a Sangam to the Tamil country. The orthodox Hindu party resorted to the creation of Sangams with divinity too playing a part therein, for the express purpose of adding to the authority and dignity of their literature. The very name sangam' are known to the early Tamils proclaims its late origin and to attempt to foisting the idea it signified on the so-called Sangam literature as its inspiring cause is little short of perpetrating a glaring and absured anachronism.
Vol. IV; No. III; 1938; Pp. 69-76.
Traces of Jain influence discernable in the earliest Tamil literature extant such as grammatical work of Agastya etc.
(1) Talkappiyama work on Tamil grammar also contains information about the social policy of the early Tamilians-its author, a student of Agastya; according to S. Vaiyapuri Pillai Tolkappiyar was a Jain-reasons given.
Kural-The ethical work 'Kural-a most important work in Tamil literature composed in the form of couplets known as Kural Venlea. It is a work based on the doctrine of Ahimsa. The work is claimed by almost all the religious sects of the Tamil land. The Jaina tradition associates this great ethical work with Elācāriyar of Sri Kundakundācārya of first century B.C. and the former half of the first century A.D.-unbiased Tamil scholars accept the Jaina authorship of this work.
cording to one tradition the author Tiruvalluvar was born of a Candai woman,
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