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LITERATURE
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the Jainas gave campū-kāvyas, or poems in a variety of composite metres interspersed with paragraphs in prose."
As regards Tamil, in some respects the most important of the - south Indian or Dravidian languages, the best and largest number
of the extant ancient classical works, the so-called Sangama literature, in that language are said to be of Jaina authorship. Tolkappiyam, the earliest Tamil grammar and, perhaps, the oldest existing work in that language, the Kural, also known as the Tamil-veda, and the most popular ancient Tamil work which has become famous all over the world through Dr. E.,U Pope's excellent English translation, three of the five major epics and all the five minor epics, the Śrīpurāņa, and several other important compositions are ascribed to the Jainas. Albert Schwitzer regards the Kural as the nobelst collection of moral lore in the entire world literature, and speaking of the Cintāmaņi, one of the major epics, Professor A. Chakravarti says, “It is undoubtedly the greatest existing Tamil literary monument. In grandeur of conception, in elegance of literary diction and in beauty of description of nature it remains unrivalled in Tamil literature. For the later Tamil authors it has been not only a model to follow, but an ideal to aspire to".
He also remarks, "A casual perusal of Tamil literature will reveal the fact that from earliest times it was influenced by Jaina culture and religion," and Prof. M.S. Ramaswamy Ayengar, from a close study of the Tamil classics, concludes that Jainism might have been prevailing in the South from before the Sangama period (350 B.C. to 200 A.D.) of Tamil literary history, and observes, "In short, the fervent manner in which Jaina beliefs and morals are depicted, the copious references to Jaina centres of learning and the description of the society in general leave no doubt in the minds of the readers of the (Tamil) epics the impression that the religion of the Arhat was embraced by large and even increasing numbers of the Dravidians."
