Jaina Literature in Tamil

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

Page 44

JAINA LITERATURE IN TAMIL
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There is some doubt as to the derivation of this word, though the significance is quite clear. All these facts taken together constrain us to believe that we have traces of Jaina influence discernible even in the earliest Tamil literature extant, not to speak of the Jaina contributions to the literature with which we are directly concerned.
1. Tolkāppiyam”—This authoritative work on Tamil grammar is supposed to be written by a Jaina
1. M.S. Venkataswamy (op. cit., p. 182) is of the opinion that vadakkiruttal is merely the Tamil equivalent of sallēkhanā. According to him the term originated from the fact that, since all the Tirthařkaras ended their worldly existence in the north, the Jainas, at the time of observing sallēkhana, faced the holy north and hence the term vadakkiruttal (vadakku= north, iruttal= seated' or lying). Also see N. Subramanian: Pre-Pallavan Tamil Index (1969), p. 729: “Vadakkiruttal : The penance of starving facing the north and self-immolation by slow starvation”.
2. The following are some of the editions, either in full or in part, of Tolkāppiyam and research treatises on that work :
(i) Colladikäram with Naccinārkkiniyar's commentary--Ed. by C.V. Damodaran Pillai, Nandana (1892);
. (ii) Tolcāpyam with Naccinārkkinier's commentaryEd. by S. Bavanandam Pillai, Vols. I and II (1916) and Vols. III and IV (1917);
(iii) Eluttadikäram with Naccinārkkiniyar's commentary---Ed. by T. Kanakasundaram Pillai, 2nd Edn. (1933);
.. (iv). Eluttadikäram and Colladikāram-Ed. by Namachchivaya Mudaliar (1922);
(v) Poruļadikäram--English translation by R. Vasudeva Sarma (1933);
(Contd.)