Jainism and Tamil (1)

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Synopsis
Jainism has a long history in the Tamil country. The Jains had a significant role in the formation of the Tamil script, including their great literary contribution. Despite this, most people were unaware of the presence of Tamil Jains and their connection to Tamil history. Many assumed, for instance, that Jainism and Buddhism were one and the same. To allay this confusion and ignorance, Mayilai Seeni Venkatasamy published Samanamum Tamilum (Jainism and Tamil) in 1954. The book is one of the earliest accounts introducing and explicating Jain philosophy, ethics, and doctrine to the modern Tamil reader. It traces Jainism’s arrival to the Tamil region, its growth, and its eventual fall with the concurrent emergence of the Bhakti movement. It talks of the persecution of Jains and their forced conversions to the Hindu faith, and Hinduism’s appropriations of Jain myths, festivals, and doctrines. Drawing from a variety of sources, including literature, inscription, sculpture, and temple architecture that has survived, perished, or metamorphosed into Hindu shrines, Venkatasamy resurrects the lost and largely forgotten Jain past of the Tamil country.This English translation makes the work available to a global readership, inviting new perspectives on this two-thousand-year-old literary, cultural, and religious tradition, and its people. It hopes to inspire similar interrogations into various regional iterations of Jainism from other parts of the subcontinent, shedding light on how Jainism - or any religion, for that matter - gets localized and develops distinctive idioms in different socio-cultural landscapes.
Copyright:
2025

Book Details

Book Quality:
Publisher Quality
Book Size:
174 Pages
ISBN-13:
9781040365908
Related ISBNs:
9781041087083, 9781040365861, 9781032482255, 9781041087090, 9781003387985
Publisher:
Taylor & Francis
Date of Addition:
Copyrighted By:
Mayilai Seeni Venkatasamy
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Has Image Descriptions:
No
Categories:
History, Nonfiction, Religion and Spirituality, Social Studies, Sociology
Submitted By:
Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.
Translator:
Darun Subramanian
Translator:
Arun Prakash Raj N

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