strangely found in the very centre of a Jaina temple be a prophecy of the coming of the spring?
Jainism has produced so vast and varied a literature, that we can mention here only the leading periods of activity and the languages used.
All the books of the Canon are in Ardha-Māgadhī, the vernacular spoken by Mahāvīra and his monks, which thus became the sacred language of Jainism.
All early commentaries on the Jaina Canon and a good deal of the secular poetry composed by Jaina are in what is known as Jaina-Mahārāṣṭrī, a vernacular closely allied to early Marāṭhī.
After the Christian era Sanskrit gradually won its way to the place of lingua franca in North India. It was generally used in inscriptions and in royal proclamations; and literary men of all the religions employed it in preference to other tongues, because it alone was understood by cultured men everywhere. This explains the existence of a great body of Buddhist literature in Sanskrit. The Jaina were rather later than others in substituting Sanskrit for their accustomed vernacular, but finally most of their sects also yielded, though in varying degrees. A large part of Jaina Sanskrit literature consists of scholastic and philosophic works connected with the exposition and defence of the faith; but the Jaina also hold a notable place in ordinary literature. They specially distinguished themselves in grammar, lexicography and moral tales. The two northern recensions of the Pañċatantra, for example, show considerable Jaina influence. The work of this period culminates in the activity of Hemaċandra, with whose writings we deal briefly below.
In South India the earliest literary movement was predominately Jaina. In Tamil literature from the earliest times for many centuries Jaina poets held a great place. The Jīvaka Ċintāmaṇi, perhaps the finest of all Tamil
