Jaina Literature in Tamil

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

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A. CHAKRAVARTI : store for a people that delight so utterly in composition thus remarkably expressive of a hunger and thirst after righteousness. They are the foremost among the peoples of India, and the Kuraļ and Nāladi have helped to make them so.”
Let us turn our attention to the last mentioned work Nālaạiyār". Kuraļ and Naladiyār serve as mutual commentaries and together throw a flood of light upon the whole ethical and social philosophy of the Tamil people." Nalaţiyār derives its name from the nature of the metre, just as the Kura!. Naladiyar means a quatrain or 4 lines in veņbā metre. The work consists of 400 quatrains and is also called the Vēļāļar-vēdam,
1. The following are the editions of Naladiyār :
(i) Nālad iyār, text-Ed. by U. Pushparatha Chettiyar, Madras, 1869;
(ii) Naladiyār (Naladi-nāņūru), text and commentary-Ed. by U. Pushparatha Chettiyar, Madras, 1873;
(iii) Nāladiyār, text and commentary-Ed. by Maunaguru Rudramurthi, 1883;
(iv) Nāladiyār, text and explanatory notes, Madras, 1885;
(v) Nālaạiyār, text-Ed. by A. Ramaswamigal, Madras, 1886;
(vi) Naladiyār, text, commentary and English translation, Madras, 1892;
(vii) The Nāladiyār or The Four Hundred Quatrains in Tamil-Ed. with English translation by G. U. Pope,
Oxford, 1893.
2. G. U. Pope: The Naladiyār or The Four Hundred Quatrains in Tamil, Oxford, 1893, General Introduction, p. xi.