Jaina Literature in Tamil

Author(s): A Chakravarti, K V Ramesh
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

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candra (11th century) and Nēmidatta (16th century) describe him as the naked ascetic of Kāñcī.
Pujyapada was yet another Jaina luminary and the credit of reviving Kundakundācārya's Mūlasamgha under the name of Drāvida-samgha in the 5th century A.D. with Madurai for its headquarters, goes to his disciple Vajrañandi. “There is an account in the Periyapurāņam of a host of ‘Karnāțaka Jainas pouring into Madurai like a cloud-burst and uprooting the ruling dynasty ; this might have preceded the formation in that city of the Drāvida-sangha of the Jains by Vajraņandi ..... The Samgha perhaps became a proselytising centre with branches all over the Tamil country.” It was in the 5th century (in 458 A.D.) that the Lökavibhāga, a Digambara work in Sanskrit on Jaina cosmography, was copied by Sarvanandi in the village Pāțalikā, i.e., modern Tiruppādirippuliyūr (South Arcot District).
In the history of Tamilnāļu, the first three centuries of the Christian era have come to be popularly known to students of history as the "Sangam age' and it was during this age and in the three succeeding centuries that Jainism reached its zenith in the Tamil country. It was during the post-Sangam age (4th-6th centuries A.D.), an otherwise historically dark period, that most of the 'Eighteen minor works' (padineņkīļkkanakku) and the Silappadikāram and Manimekalai were written, many of them by Jaina authors. As for the prevalence
1. K.R. Venkatarama Ayyar, Op. cit., p. 25. 2. Mys. Arch. Rep., 1909–10, P, 45,