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JAINA LITERATURE IN TAMIL
111
in Tamil to illustrate the grammatical and idiomatical usage in Tamil literature. The book now published is unfortunately incomplete. The editor with all his attempt was not able to obtain the missing portion in the beginning as well as at the end of the work. Instead of waiting indefinitely, it is good that the work is published though incomplete. From Guņādhya's Brhatkathā, which contains a lot of other stories, the author of Tamil Perunkathai has taken only the portions relating to the life of Prince Udayana. The story consists of 6 main chapters. Uñjaik-kāņdam, Lāvāņak-kāndam, Magadak-kändam, Vattavak-kāndam Naravānak-kāņdam and Turavuk-kāņdam, all relating to the rich life of Udayana. Udayana was the son of Satānīka of the Kuru dynasty who ruled over Kauśāmbi. Satānika's queen was one Mțgāvati. When she was in an advanced state of pregnancy she, with her attendants, was playing in the upstairs of her palace. She had herself and her attendants and the whole background adorned with plenty of red flowers and red silk clothes. After play she fell asleep on her cot. The most powerful bird of Hindu mythology, Sarabha, mistaking the place to be strewn with raw flesh on account of the red flowers strewn across, carried away the cot with Msgāvati sleeping on it to Vipulācala. When Mțgāvati woke up she was surprised to find herself in strange surroundings. The bird which carried her there, realising that what she carried was not a mass of flesh but a live human being, went away leaving her there. Just at that moment she gave birth to a son, the future Udayana.
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