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Studies in Jainology, Prakrit
Ceylon in C.400 B.C.led scholars to serious thinking and, then, to a reasonable conclusion that Jainism had made its enterance into the Telugu country via Kalinga during the life-time of Mahāvīra 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 Telugu 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 Jain 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 ino consideration the very carly 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 cstablished its influence over different strata of society and had made Krishna and Guntur districts, its strong- holds. The 9th and 10th cunturies 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 dānavulapādu (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 Vaişnava Alvaras 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
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