Pushkarmuni Abhinandan Granth

Author(s): Devendramuni, A D Batra, Shreechand Surana
Publisher: Rajasthankesari Adhyatmayogi Upadhyay Shree Pushkar Muni Abhinandan Granth Prakashan Samiti

Page 683

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श्री पुष्करमुनि अभिनन्दन ग्रन्थ : षष्ठम खण्ड
connected with the advent and prosperity of Jainism in South India. According to a well-known South Indian tradition, Jainism entered into South India with the great migration of the Jaina Sangha, headed by the Srutakevali Bhadrabāhu and accompanied by his royal disciple Candragupta, who left Madhyadeśa owing to the twelve year famine, moved to the South and had their first colony at Kaļbappu (Sravanabelgola) in C. 300 B.C. Then a part of the Sangha under Visakhācārya moved fruther to the Tamil country. But an evidence of the existence of Jainism in Ceylon in C. 400 B.C. led scholars to serious thinking and, then, to a reasonable conclusion that Jainism had made its entrance into the Telugu country via Kalinga during the life-time of Mahāvira himself (C. 600 A. D.), passed on to the Tamil country and then reached Ceylon and that consequently the Jaina followers were already in Karnatak before the great migration.
This acceptable track of Jainism in South India would naturally tempt us to expect from the Talugu region, which was the first and earliest to receive the Jaina teachers and scholars, rich and varied forms of Jaina literature in the Telugu language. But the actual state of things is quite different : there are found just less than a half dozen Jaina works belonging to the later period, the earliest available literary work in the language being the Mahābhārata of Nannayya Bhatta (C. 1050 A.D.). But taking into consideration the very early advent of Jainism into the Telugu country, the available Jaina epigraphs and the various Jaina vestiges, scholars opine that at the beginning Jainism had its hold in several parts of the Telugu country. Then rivalling with Buddhism on one hand and the Hindu reaction on the other, it established its influence over different strata of society and had made Krishna and Guntur districts its strong-holds. The 9th and 10th centuries were prosperous for it. By the middle of the 11th century, the mighty and violent Hindu revival swept it away when all Jaina literary works might have been destroyed. The names like danavulapādu (Place of demons) given to a Jaina vestige is sufficient to indicate the whole dreadful story. Hence it will not be hazardous if we surmise a Jaina period in the Telugu literary history between the 9th and 11th centuries.
But in the Tamil country, which received Jainism in two streams as noted above, Jaina literature had a good beginning and considerable growth until the Saiva saints and the Vaişpava Alvāras strongly reacted and produced vast literature of their own. As usual the Jaina monks and scholars soon picked up the Tamil language, cultivated it for literary usage and produced in it a good amount of literature in its varied branches : inscriptions, poetry, prosody, grammar, lexicography, mathematics, astrology etc. To mention a few :9 Toļkäppiyam (C. 450 A.D.)-the most authentic Tamil grammar, Tirukkural (C. 600 A.D.)--the immortal Tamil Veda, Silappadikāram (C. 800 A.D.)-the well-known Tamil classic of abiding interest, Jivaka Cintamani (C. 1000 A.D.) --the great romantic epic and Vasudevanar Sindam (?), 11 which is based on the Paiśāci Brbatkatbā of Guņādhya and which stands in rank with the Prakrit Vasudevahindi-are all by Jaina authors. The Tamil Jaina inscriptions, as observed by scholars in the field, 12 clearly show the Jaina contribution to the growth of Tamil language and literature.
When we come to the Malayalam langauge of Keral, the Southern portion of the west coast of India, we do not find any Jaina contribution in it. The reason is obvious that it happens to be the youngest of the Dravidian group of languages which had its distinctive existence just by the 10th century. A.D. Until when Sendamil (Pure Tamil) was the sole language of the land. The first Malayālam literary pieces go back to C. 13th century A. D.18 Yet there are reasons to believe that Jainism had its spread and roots in this country too. It is interesting to note that Prof. A. Chakravarti, while presenting critical observations on the Silappadıkāram, writes14 "Mr. Logan in his Malbar District Manual states several important points indicating the Jaina influence over the people of Malbar coast before the introduction of Hinduism." Moreover, Dr. P. B. Desai, basing his study on the notes on the Chitral inscription and the Jaina vestiges in Travanacore published in the Travanacore Archaeological Series, Vol. I (1910-13), pp. 193 ff., and Vol. JI (1920), pp. 125 ff., comes to conclusion that approximately the age of 9th to 11th centuries