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A. CHAKRAVARTI :
after the Sanskrit drama Prabodhacandrõdaya. This Tamil work is in viruttam metre, consisting of four lines. It is also in the form of a drama where the representatives of the various religions are introduced on the stage. Each one is introduced while reciting a characteristic verse containing the essence of his religion. When the Jaina sanyāsi appears on the stage, he is made to recite that particular verse from the Kura! which praises the ahimsā doctrine that “not killing a single life for the purpose of eating is far better than performing 1000 yāgas.” It will not be far wrong to suggest that in the eyes of this dramatist the Kuraļ was characteristically a Jaina work. Otherwise he would not have put this verse in the mouth of the nigantavādi. This much is enough. We may end this discussion by saying that this great ethical work is specially composed for the purpose of inculcating the principle of ahimsă in all its multifarious aspects, probably by a great Jaina scholar of eminence about the first century of the Christian era.
This great ethical work, which contains the essence of Tamil wisdom, consists of three parts and of 133 chapters. Each chapter contains 10 verses.
(ii) Prabodhacandrõdayam-Ed. by Subbarayaswamigal, Ramanuja Mudaliar and Venkataramayyar, Madras,
1898. 1. See, above, p. 34, footnote 1.
2. S. Vaiyapuri Pillai (History of Tamil Language and Literature, 1956, pp. 81-85) is of the view that Tiruvalluvar lived about 600 A.D.
wote 1
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