Jaina Literature in Tamil

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

Page 89

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A. CHAKRAVARTI :
Rāmāyaṇa that when he introduced his Rāmāyaṇa before the academy of scholars, when some of the scholars remarked that they discerned traces of Cintāmaņi there, Kamban, characteristic of intellectual courage and honesty, acknowledged his debt with the following words: “Yes, I have sipped a spoonful of the nectar from Cintämaņi.
This indicates with what veneration the classic was held by the Tamil scholars. “This greatromantic epic which is at once the Iliad and the Odyssey of the Tamil language' is said to have been composed in the early youth of the poet named Tiruttakkadēva. Nothing is known about the author except his name and that he was born in Mylapore, a suburb of Madras, where the author of the KuraỊ also lived. The youthful poet together with his master migrated to Madurai, the great capital of the Pandyan kingdom and a centre of religious activities. With the permission of the teacher the young ascetic-poet got introduced to the members of the Tamil Academy or Sangam at Madurai. While in social conversation with some of the fellow members of the academy, he was reproached by them for the incapacity of producing erotic work in Tamil language. To this he replied that few Jainas
1. V. Swaminatha Iyer (ed.): Jivaka- Cintamani (1922), Preface to the 3rd edition. According to the learned editor, this incident involving Kamban was found noted down on an old manuscript copy of Jivaka-Cintamani.
2. For the traditional biographical account of Tiruttakkadēvar, see also M. S. Ramaswami Ayyangar, op. cit., pp. 95-96.