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JAINISM IN SOUTH INDIA
The history of the Tamil litrature commences with an account of the Sangam or the Literary Academy that flourished at Madura. It is believed that there existed three Academies which attained prominence one after the other. The age of these Academies is still an unsettled problem of the Tamil literature; but the most reasonable view appears to be to place them within the first few centuries of the Christian Era. Like the poets and composers of other schools Jaina authors also participated in the literary activities of the Tamil land from the beginning. It has been suggested further that the very conception and the name of the Academy owe their origin to the ascetic leaders of the Jaina religious movement in the Tamil country, who with their characteristic insight formed themselves into well-constituted monastic institutions known as the Samgha, gana, etc."
Influence of Jaina thought and philosophy has been traced in the Tolkappiyam, the earliest extant work on Tamil grammar and other earlier compositions, such as Kural, Śilappadikaram, Nālaḍiyār, etc. It is also claimed that the authors of these works were Jaina by persuasion. The arguments in favour of this claim do not appear to be unjustified. Of the five major epic poems in the Tamil literature, three, namely, the Silappadikaram, Valaiyapati and Chintamani, are attributed to the authorship of Jaina writers. Among them Chintamani is considered to be the greatest Mahākāvya in Tamil. It was composed about the 10th century A. D. A tradition avers that impressed by its literary excellence, the Chōla king Kulottunga II inspired the great Saivite poet Sekkilar to compose the famous Periyapuranam which deals with the lives of Saivite saints." All the five minor epic poems in the Tamil literature are composed by Jaina poets. The credit of enriching the Tamil literature by composing various works on didactics, grammar, prosody and lexicography and commentaries, goes to the Jaina authors.*
Many of the Jaina compositions in the Tamil literature have been appreciated by foreign scholars on account of their chaste style and impressive manner of treatment. The Jainas thus played a distinguished rôle in the development of the Tamil literature and it is a glorious achievement to be proud of for a follower of any faith. A large number of Jaina works appears to have been destroyed during the tide of Hindu revival and consequently the Jaina books in the Tamil literature are fewer than those in the Kannaḍa literature. But the literary activities of the Jainas in the Tamil country appear to have
1 K. A. Nilakanta Sastri: Cholas, Vol. I, pp. 36 and 71.
2 Jaina Literature in Tamil, p. 8.
3 Ibid., pp. 10-12.
4 Cholas, Vol. II, part i, p. 516.
5 Ibid., p. 505.
6 R. Narasimhacharys: History of Kannada Literature, p. 67.
