Dravida Sangha was established in 470 CE by a Jain monk named Vajranandi in the city of Madurai in present-day Tamil Nadu. Madurai at that time was under the sway of the Kalabhra rule. The Jain Dravida Sangha aimed at creating a casteless society, inspired by the Jain school of thought. The Dravida Sangha was also one of the first groups to espouse a Dravidian identity among Tamils and other south Indians. According to Prof. George L. Hart, who holds the endowed Chair in Tamil Studies by University of California, Berkeley, and has written that the legend of Tamil Sangam (literary assembly) was based on the Jain assembly (Sangham) at Madurai:

"There was a Jaina assembly called a Sa(n)gha established about 604 AD in Maturai."[1]

History

Dravida Sangha is said to have been established by Vajranandi in 470 CE.[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Hart, George. The Milieu of the Ancient Tamil Poems. University of California, Berkeley. Archived from the original on 9 July 1997.
  2. ↑ Somasundaram, O; Tejus Murthy, AG; Raghavan, DV (2016), "Jainism - Its relevance to psychiatric practice; with special reference to the practice of Sallekhana", Indian J Psychiatry, 58 (4): 471–474, doi:10.4103/0019-5545.196702, PMC 5270277, PMID 28197009
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