In the above struggle the Buddhists and Jains were not quiet; they tried in their own way to popularize their religion by appealing to the hearts of the old as well as of the young. The most useful works on theology, ethics, grammar and language were written by them. Three of the major (Kundalakesi, Valaiyapati and Chintamani) and five of the minor (Yesodarakavyam, Udayanakavyam, Nagakumarakavvam, Nilakesi and Chulamani[1]) epics, Naladiyar, Pazhamoli, Neminadam, Karigai (Prosody) and Chudamani Vigandu belong to this period. The Saivas compiled the Divakaram and Pingalandai lexicons,
Translations from Sanskrit : Now that the Jains and Buddhists were cleared off the field, the Brahmans began to attend to their own religion. Finding more leisure and greater support from the Tamil kings, they set about separating the various sects which lay embedded in Brahmanism in a crude form. The Sanskrit puranas and itihasas furnished them with mighty weapons to develop and strengthen the different sects. And in order to popularize each sect among the Dravidians, the Tamil scholars and theologians found it necessary to translate some of the most important works, as the Jains and Buddhists had done before them to popularize their own. The Mahabharata had already been translated by Perundevanar; Kamban and Ottaikuttan took up the
- ↑ This Jain work was composed by Tolamoli Devar probably in the reign of the Pandya king Jayantan (A. D. 650) and named after his father Maravarman Avani Chulamani.
