The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c11.16

c11.16

We may now turn to a brief review of the state of religious belief in the period of our study. We have seen that in the early centuries of the Christian era, in the *Śangam* age, Buddhism, Jainism and Brahminism flourished in the Tamil land. The central feature of the development that followed in the succeeding centuries was the determined effort made by the exponents of Brahminism in its various forms to suppress the heretical sects of Buddhism and Jainism, an effort which was apparently marked by greater success against the Buddhists than against the Jains. Yuan Chwang writing in the middle of the seventh century A.D. deplores the decay of Buddhism in South India and envies the prosperity of the Jains. We can also trace many survivals of Jainism to a comparatively late age. At Ērvāḍi in the Tinnevelly district there was discovered a squatting Jaina figure and engraved below it is a small inscription, in Vaṭṭeḻuttu characters of about the eighth century A.D., which reads ‘Work of Ajjaṇandi’. This Jaina teacher appears to be referred to in the Jīvakacintāmaṇi also. Another inscription in the same place of about the same period records a grant of land to a Jaina temple.¹ Two inscriptions of Māraṇjaḍayan from the Ramnad district (430 and 431 of 1914) make mention of Tirukkāṭṭāmpaḷḷi which seems to have been a Jaina temple at Kuraṇḍai, an important Jaina centre in Veṇbunāḍu.² And the well-known Aivarmalai record of A.D. 870 records the renewal of the images of Pārśva-Bhaṭārar and the Yakṣis at Tiruvayirai by one Śāntivīraguravar, the pupil of Guṇavīrakkuravadiigal. And even Rājasimha II, the last of the Pāṇḍya rulers of this age, is said to have endowed, among others, several Jaina temples (எண்ணிறந்த பள்ளிச் சந்தங்களும்). It is clear from such facts that Jainism was not overwhelmed so completely as Buddhism by the rising tide of Śaivism and Vaiṣṇavism in the land.