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96 JAINS AND TAMIL LITERATURE. I
with great care and was equally proficient in Sanskrit. Hearing of the fame of Madura, a great centre of Tamil learning. Tiruttakkadēvar went there and spent most of his time in conversing with learned Pundits. One day, the poets of the city made a somewhat disparaging remark about the puritanic nature of Jain compositions and desired to know if Tiruttakkadēvar was competent to write on such subjects as love and luxury. He replied that the Jains cared only for serious poetry and that their religion would not permit of such contemptible things as love and luxury being made subjects of literary compositions. The Sangam poets, persisting in their remark, Tiruttakkadēvar proceeded at once to his preceptor and laid the full case before him. The preceptor, equally anxious to demonstrate the capacity of the Jains to undertake literary work of such kind and willing to test the ability of his disciple, asked him to compose poems on a jackal that was just then passing by. Instantaneously, Tiruttakkadēvar began reciting poems on the subject and produced a work known as Nariviruttam of which we shall speak later. The preceptor, perfectly satisfied with the elegance, style and subject matter of the Nariviruttam, commanded the pupil to compose a bigger work on the life of Jivakan and to show it to the Sangam poets of Madura. Such is the traditional account of the composition of Jivakachintamani.
