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A. CHAKRAVARTI :
In the fourth section the narrative of the new king Yośõmati is given and also the story of Abhayaruci and Abhayamatī who were in their previous births Yośõdhara and his queen-mother Candramatī. Finally, when Māridatta learnt the whole story, he desired to know more about this noble truth ahiņsā; and he was taken to the guru who was camping in the udyāna in the outskirts of the city where the king had the initiation into the noble faith of ahimsā. Thereafter, he not only gave up the offering of animal sacrifice to Kāli himself, but also proclaimed to his people that such a sacrifice should not be offered any longer. Thus he elevated the religion and temple worship to a higher and nobler level all over his land. This is the story of the Yaśõdhara-kavya in Tamil about whose author we know nothing. The story is found even in Sanskrit literature. There is a Sanskrit Yasodhara-kavya dealing with the same story. But it is not clearly known which is earlier, the Tamil or the Sanskrit one.
The Tamil Yasõdhara-kāvya was first published by the late T. Venkatarama Iyengar, an esteemed friend of the present writer. Unfortunately the edition is out of print and hence not available to readers at present.
(2) Cūļāmaņi:- It is composed by the Jaina author and poet Tolāmolittēvar. He was evidently under the patronage of the chief Vijaya of Kārvețnagar. The editor of this work, Damodaram Pillai, is of opinion that it must be earlier than some of the major kävyas. His conclusion is based upon the fact that several stanzas from Cūļāmaņi are quoted by Amộtasā
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