History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c18.s2.33

c18.s2.33

Professor Chakravarti does not agree with this conclusion. The absence of references to the Ājīvikas in the Tamil devotional anthologies convinces him that they were extinct when the hymns were composed.² He overlooks the reference to them in the *Civañāṉa-cittiyār*, of the fourteenth century. The author of *Nīlakēci* states that he learnt Jaina doctrine from one Tēvar, whom Chakravarti identifies with the author of the *Tirukkural*.¹ Hence he believes that the poem was written as early as the first century A.D. Overlooking any other objections to this very early date, the identification proposed by Chakravarti cannot be proved. Chakravarti gives the name in its honorific plural form, “Thevar,” which title is sometimes used to mean Tiruvalluvar.² But the text gives the name in the singular form, *Tēvaṇ*, which is not so used, but may be applied to the Jaina *Arhant*.³ We must therefore Cakravarti’s conclusion that *Nīlakēci* was written at so early a date, and assign the work to the eighth or ninth century.