Jnanasambandar: Nanda Chandran's question

[Alvappillai Veluppillai]

The story of the persecution of the Jains by Jnanasambandar has an
interesting development in Tamil. Sambandar's hymns, dated in 7th c.  refer
to disputation only. Nampiyandar Nampi, a Brahmin author of 11th c. was the
first to credit Sambandar with persecution of 8000 Jains. Some later
authors accept persecution story but try to exonerate Sambandar. The story
of persecution of 8000 is highly improbable.
T. P. Meenakshisunderanar deals with this problem in his book, Sambandarum
Samanarum (Sennai, Rudra Press, 1957).
Perhaps the latest publication on this problem is
A. Veluppillai, "The Hindu Confrontation with the Jaina and the Buddhist.
Saint Tirunanacampantar's Polemical Writings", The Problem of Ritual, ed.
T. Ahlback ( Åbo: The Donner Institute for Research in Religious and
Cultural History, 1993), pp. 335- 364.

/ A. Veluppillai
>>he claims that Sasanka was an astik smartha and not a nastika Shaiva.
>>Indeed it appears from the URL that the Shaivas were more tolerant than the
>>Buddhists or Jainas, who were in turn more tolerant than Vaishnavas and
>>Vaidiks.
>
>All this is just purely political. When Vaishnavism openly defines itself as
>Ubahya VedAnta and Shankara who was an orthodox brahmin is generally
>regarded as a Shaivite and JnAnasampandhar was a brahmin, how can such
>claims be justified?
>
>In todays India, if you're anti brahmin and can also prove that your
>people were "persecuted" by brahmins, you can enjoy the benefits of
>the reservation system etc So to that extent everybody is eager to
>prove that they were "persecuted" by brahmins. In such a claim they
>also seek support of other groups, who also for the same reason claim
>priveleges.
>
>So in the quoted sentences the equation is that,
>
>Vaishnavas and Vaidiks = brahmins
>
>Buddhist and Jainas = brahmins + upper castes + few lower castes
>
>Shaivas = Saiva SiddAntists (who have a strong non-brahmin following
>                             in Tamil Nadu, many of whom enjoy the
>                             privelege of the "backward" or "other
>                             backward" caste status and also are a
>                             powerful political force.)
>
>So if you're a Dalit, how would you present your case? You raise a
>big cry about brahmanic oppression and side with the BCs and OBCs to
>derive political and economic mileage.
>
>But what the Dalits don't realize or probably do - but don't
>want to acknowledge it at present, is that the brahmins only have a
>religious bias against them. They simply do not care what the Dalits
>do in terms of profession or economic prosperity etc But that's what
>the BCs and OBCs are interested in and in the long term this will
>bring both sections in direct confrontation with each other. It's
>already happening - with the clashes between the Dalits and upper
>caste Tamils on the increase. And it is not that the BCs and OBCs are
>egalitarian either. Their casteism and discrimination against the Dalits is
>even worser than the brahmins and would be even more acutely felt by the
>Dalits since it will be in the economic and social sphere.
>
>The so called persecution by the brahmins is itself a Marxist innovation,
>which gives them a reason to exist in India. For in reality, brahmanic
>oppression was never economic, with the brahmins themselves having renounced
>wealth voluntarily.
>
>And the Muslim interest in this whole affair is that they don't want the
>Hindus to come together and turn on them for all their past atrocities. So
>it is in their interest that the Hindus - upper and lower castes - are kept
>busy, fighting each other.
>
>A few months back somebody replying to a post by Vishal which was
>deliberately misinterpreted as a physical threat, said they didn't think
>that something as harmless as Indological studies can be so dangerous - well
>for foreign professors sitting in foreign lands it sure isn't - but in India
>the so called "Aryan invasion" has a devastating effect - which has resulted
>in social discord and cultural decay - for it is perceived that everything
>"Aryan" is wrong. And while the professor in a foreign university speculates
>about the Aryanization of India with a glass of scotch, he doesn't realize
>or maybe doesn't even care, that his speculations cause economically poor,
>harmless "Aryan" brahmins to be abused - physically, socially and
>economically.
>
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