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Studies in Jainology, Prakrit
199
internal or external. But we have a good external evidence, for saying that Tiruvalluvar was of Jain faith, in the admittance (though rather reluctantly) of this Hindu Commentator on the Kural, Parimelalagar, and in the citing of the Kural as 'em-oltu' - our authority' by thc jain commentator Samayadivakara. Hence agreeing with Prof.S. Vaiyapuri Pillai's vicw that ”Tiruvalluvar was Jain admits of no doubt”, but revising it on certain grounds, I would propose my own view in this regard as follows:
Tiruvalluvar, in all probability, was a Jaina householder (grhastha or Śravaka), who came in close contact with a Jaina Sage holding the position of Elacarya (which is post-Upadhyaya and pre-Acarya rank in the Digambara tradition of teachers), and cquipped himself with adequatc knowledge of Jainism, and more particularly of the ethical discipline concerning the houscholder as well as the ascetic. As a fruit of such long term association as well as teachings of such teacher and his own equipment through deep study, together with keen observation round about, came out from his pen Aram - dharma, of Part 1 of the Kural, which is almost like a mini Manual of Ethical Discipline for the houscholder in the main and the ascetic to some extent, highlighting his greatness, principal qualities, merits and spiritual significance etc. Moreover the impact of Tiruvalluvar's close association with the teachings of the Elacarya on him was so much cffective that although a householder, he might have lived almost a saintly lise and, hence, people round about the region may have called him 100 an Elācārya; and this phenomenon gradually seems to have settled down as an anecdote or a tradition in that area. Actually he could have been an erudite Jaina Householder and this fact gave a shape and spirit to part 1 of the Kural. In support of this theory, I would adduce in brief the following reasons and textual evidence : (All my references here are to the Delhi Edition);
(i) By way of the Jaina mode of invocation at the beginning of the work, the opening couple of the Tirukkural (I.1.1.) is with
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