A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c19.s2.13

c19.s2.13

The Perungadai (Sanskrit, Brihat-kathā) of Kongu-Vēḷir is another great poem by a Jaina author, of which only parts are available. It tells of the adventures of Naravānadatta, the son of the celebrated Udayana of Kauśāmbī and is apparently based on a Sanskrit original which was a rendering of Guṇādhya's famous poem in the Paiśāci dialect. The Western Ganga king Durvinita is said to have composed a Sanskrit version of that work at the end of the sixth century. As a narrative poem the Perungadai has exceptional merits and is deservedly popular. Vaḷaiyāpati and Kuṇḍalakēśi are the names of two other Jaina Kāvyas in Tamil which have been lost but were once counted among the five great Kāvyas. The commentary on the Yāpparungalam, a Jaina grammar of the next period, cites many works on grammar by Jaina authors which must have been composed at this time; so also the commentary on the Viraśōliyam, a Buddhist grammatical work of the eleventh century, cites verses from many Buddhist Kāvyas of this period no longer accessible to us.