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MEDIÆVAL JAINISM piyam, Kural, Manimekhalai, and Silappadikāram. It is interesting to note that, according to some scholars, the author of Toļkāppiyam was himself a Jaina ;' that Vaļļuvar, the author of Kural, was likewise a follower of Arhat, ;3 and that Iļangõvadigal, the author of Manimekhalai, and the author of Nāladiyar were both Jainas. The Kural, we may note by the way, contains undoubted references to Jainism.5
A prominent sect met with in early Tamil literature has been identified with one of the Jaina sects. Thus, for instance, in the work called Manimekhalai we have the teachings of the Ājīvikas in detail. These Ājīvikas or naked ascetics are supposed by some to be no other than one sect
1. Ramaswami Ayyangar, Studies., pp. 36-50. Other scholars of late including S. K. Ayyangar and C. S. Srinivasachari, have noted a few references to the same after him. Sec for the remarks of these two scholars. Jainācārya Sri Atmānanda Centenar y Commemoration volume, (Bombay, 1936).
2. Vaiyapuri Pillai, Sen Tamil, XVIII for 1919-1920, p. 339.
3. Seshagiri Shastry, Essay on Tamil Literature, p. 43; Ramaswami, ibid, p. 41.
4. Ramaswami, ibid, pp. 46, 56.
5. Ramaswami, ibid, pp. 41-42. Mr. V. R. Ramachandra Dikshitar has unsuccessfully tried to show that the cpithets inalarmiśai, yekkinän, aindavittān, and arāvāliyantanamwhich Ramaswami, following Seshagiri Shastry, showed to be Jaina epithets (Studies, p. 41)--were Vedic ideas. Studies in Tamil Literature, pp. 136-37. Prof. A. N. Upadhye merely follows Ramaswami Ayyangar where he maintains that the Kural contains many Jaina indications, and that the commentator of Nilakesi calls the Kural" our own Bible" (emmothu). Upadhye, Pravacanasāra, Intr. pp. xx, seq. See Ramaswami, Studies., pp. 41
43.
6. S. K. Ayyangar, Manimekhalai in its Historical Setting, Bk. xxvii pp. 193-4. See also ibid, Intr. p. xxii, and pp. 55, 55n(i), 56, 57. Cf. Silappadikāram, Canto XXVII, II. 99-100.
