Manimekalai

There is no credible information available about the author or the date of its composition. Late sources suggest that the author Seethalai may have been a Buddhist grain merchant and Tamil writer. The Manimekalai has been variously dated between the 2nd-century and early 9th century by Indian and non-Indian scholars, with early dates favored by Tamil scholars generally allied to the Tamil tradition. A part of the complication is that the Manimekalai contains numerous Hindu Puranic legends, references to gods and goddesses in Hindu and Buddhist traditions, as well as the epic's author's summary sections on various schools of Buddhist, Hindu and Jain philosophies some of whose authors are generally dated to later centuries. The colonial era Tamil scholar S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar proposed in 1927 that it was either composed "much earlier than AD 400" or "decisively to be a work of the fifth century at the earliest". In 1974, Kamil Zvelebil – a Tamil literature and history scholar, proposed mid 6th-century as the most informed dating, based on the linguistics, internal evidence, the dating of its twin-epic Silappadikaram, and a comparison to other Tamil literature. In his 1989 translation, Alain Daniélou suggests that the text was composed after the first Tamil epic Silappadikaram, but likely in the 2nd- or 3rd century. According to Hikosaka, if some of the events mentioned in the epic partially related to actual historic Chola dynasty events, some portions of the Manimekalai should be dated after 890 CE. According to Paula Richman, the 6th-century dating by Kandaswami and Zvelebil are the most persuasive scholarly analysis of the evidence within the epic as well as the evidence in other Tamil and Sanskrit texts. ==The Epic==

The Manimekalai builds on the characters of the oldest Tamil epic Silappatikaram (). It describes the story of Manimekalai, the beautiful daughter of Kovalan and Madhavi, in 30 cantos. The Manimekalai is the anti-thesis of the Silappadikaram in focus, style and the propaganda in the two epics. The Silappadikaram is a tragic love story that ultimately becomes supernatural. The Manimekalai is an anti-love story that starts off with supernatural elements. ==Manuscripts and translations==

The Manimekhalai palm-leaf manuscripts were preserved and found in Hindu temples and monasteries along with those of Silappadikaram. It is the only surviving Tamil Buddhist literary work, though commentary and secondary Tamil literature evidence suggests that there were other Buddhist epics and texts in the Tamil language at least till the 14th century. The reason for its survival, states Richman, is probably its status as the sequel to the Silapathikaram or Sīlappadhikāram. Extracts of this, particularly Canto 30, was republished in Hisselle Dhammaratana's Buddhism in South India but with altered terminology. In 1989, Alain Daniélou with the collaboration of T.V. Gopala Iyer published a complete French translation, then an English translation. There is also a Japanese translation by Shuzo Matsunaga, published in 1991. ==Significance==

The epic gives much information on the history of Tamil Nadu, Buddhism and its place during that period, contemporary arts and culture, and the customs of the times. It presents the author's view of the Buddhist doctrine of Four Noble Truths (ārya-satyāni), Dependent Origination (pratītyasamutpāda), mind (citra), goddesses, miracles, mantras, rebirth, merit-making, begging by monks and nuns, helping the poor and needy. The epic provides a view of religious rivalry between Buddhism and Jainism, where Buddhist ideas and propaganda are presented while Jainism is "attacked and ridiculed", according to Zvelebil. According to Richman, the Manimekalai is a significant Buddhist epic, given its unique status. The summary of Buddhist doctrine in it, particularly in Cantos 27, 29 and 30, present a Tamil literary writer's perspective of Buddhism before it likely died out in Tamil Nadu, in or about the 11th century. Buddhist School Affiliation According to a 1927 thesis of Rao Bahadur Krishnaswāmi Aiyangar, the Manimekalai contains "nothing that may be regarded as referring to any form of Mahayana Buddhism, particularly the Sunyavada as formulated by Nagarjuna". In contrast, in 1978, C.N. Kandaswami stated there is a lot of internal evidence that "Manimekalai explains Mahayana Buddhism, and champions its cause". According to G John Samuel and others, based in part on the antiquity of the text and theories, it was believed that the epic was from an early Hinayana (Theravada) Buddhist school, but more recent studies suggest that the Buddhist epic Manimekalai belonged to an early form of Mahayana Buddhism influenced by ideas now attributed to scholars such as Vasubandhu, Dignaga, Buddhagosha, Buddhadatta and Dharmapala. According to Shu Hikosaka – a scholar of Buddhism and Tamil literature, in Manimekalai "there are not only the doctrines of Mahayana Buddhism but also those of Hinayana Buddhism", in an era when monks of these traditions were staying together, sharing ideas and their ideologies had not hardened. ==Reception==

To some critics, Manimekalai is more interesting than Silappadikaram, states Zvelebil, but in his view the literary quality of Manimekalai is significantly inferior. The story of Manimekalai is overloaded with supernatural events, miraculous goddesses and reads like a propaganda pamphlet of Buddhism. Ramayana Reference Like the Silappatikaram, this epic also makes several references to the Ramayana, such as a setu (bridge) being built by monkeys in canto 5, line 37 (however the location is Kanyakumari rather than Dhanushkodi). In another reference, in canto 17, lines 9 to 16, the epic talks about Rama being the incarnate of Trivikrama or Netiyon, and he building the setu with the help of monkeys who hurled huge rocks into the ocean to build the bridge. Further, canto 18, lines 19 to 26, refers to the illegitimate love of Indra for Ahalya the wife of Rishi Gautama(Pandian, 1931, p.149)(Aiyangar, 1927, p.28). This seems to indicate that the story of the Ramayana was familiar in the Tamil land since very early times and Rama was acknowledged as a God, even before the Kamba Ramayanam of the 12th century. ==See also==