SamnyAsin names

[Prasad Velusamy]

  Saint Jnaanasambandhar is clear about the classical
  languages of India. Over the net, some try to portray
  Tamil as a simple Prakrit, and 2+ millennia classical tradition
  goes against that kind of classification.



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In this connection, the following tEvAram verse by campantar may be of
interest.

cantucEn2an2um intucEn2an2um tarumacEn2an2um karumai cEr
kantucEn2an2um kan2akacEn2an2um mutal atu Akiya peyar koLA
manti pOl tirintu AriyattoTu centamizp payan2 aRikilA
antakarkku eLiyEn2 alEn2 tiru AlavAy aran2 niRkavE. (3.39.4)

Indira Petersen (Poems to S'iva, p.278) translates this as:

With aran2 of AlavAy by my side.
I will easily defeat
those blind fools with names like
candusena, indusena, dharmasena,
dark kandusena, and kanakasena,
who roam about like apes, and know
neither good Tamil nor the Sanskrit language.

In another verse, he criticizes the Jain monks with names like kanakanandi,
puSpanandi, pavaNanandi, etc. as follows.

kan2akanantiyum puTpanantiyum pavaNanantiyum kumaNa mA
cun2akanantiyum kun2akanantiyum tivaNanantiyum mozi koLA
an2akanantiyar matu ozintu avamE tavam purivOm en2um
cin2akarukku eLiyEn2 alEn2 tiru AlavAy aran2 niRkavE.          (3.39.6)

So, it seems that many Jain monks in Tamil country in the 7th century had
names ending in -sena (Tamil cEn2an2) and -nandi (Tamil nanti. Incidentally,
the zaivite saint appar who accompanied campantar on some of his travels,
had
the name tarumacEn2ar (Skt. dharmasena) when he was a Jain.

Regards
S. Palaniappan

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