________________
APPENDIX
JAINA EPIGRAPHS IN TAMIL
In this appendix are brought together, for the first time, the texts of eightyfive Jaina inscriptions in Tamil, published over the decades in the pages of many different volumes, most of them now out of print, and hence not readily available to the world of scholars and students. Though the present collection is by no means exhaustive, its utility lies in the fact that it enables readers to understand, though only on broad lines, the course of the history of Jainism in the Tamil country. Some of the published Jaina Tamil epigraphs have been left out of the present collection owing to their damaged or uncertain nature. Since quite a few epigraphs are merely cursorily noticed, without their texts being given, they too have been excluded. Nevertheless, any conclusion pertaining to the prevalence and chronological and regional history of Jainism in Tamilnadu," drawn on the basis of this appendix, is not likely to be seriously affected or modified by any such exhaustive collection which may be rendered possible by future publications.
It will be clear from the sequel that nearly two-thirds of the eightyfive inscriptions included here hail from the Tirunelveli and Madurai districts. The provenance and dates of these inscriptions lead to the following conclusions, viz.,
that Jainism was at its zenith in the Tamil country during the 8th and 9th centuries A. D., particularly in the Madurai-Tirunelveli region; that the Madurai-Tiruchirappalli region had received this noble faith at least as early as in the 2nd century B. C.; that this region continued to patronise Jainism till at least the 9th century A. D.; that Jaina followers were very active in the Tirune-leveil and North Arcot regions during the 8th-11th centuries;
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
