I will take a look at Romila Thapar’s book Early India.

So we have one instance of Hindus allegedly impaling 8000 jains which the author herself doubts to be true.
I was looking forward to more specific references.

In the periya puranam which is the history (more like hagiography) of the 63 nayanmars, it says that nayanmars in particular and saivaites in general had to face lot of hostility from the jains because of their faith. The jains are shown to have the upper hand as the kings of that time were jains. Tirunavukkarasar was subjected to the hot lime kiln treatment, poisoning and as well as getting trampled by elephant treatment. He is said to have escaped by singing hymns to Shiva.

The jains i guess have not written their side about the happenings of 7th to 9th century. Maybe they had written it but did not publicise it .

State patronage seemed to be have been very important for the sustainment of Jainism in Tamil nadu because being a non theistic religion they did not get any help from the gods. I guess the Bakthi movement was a reaction against the rigidity imposed by the jains.

But i am curious about the patronage Vaishnavaism seemed to be gotten around that time because the kings of that time were staunch saivaites. But vaishnavaism flourished in Tamil Nadu during the same time with huge temples being built and maintained at that time. This is not possible without the support of the state.

Alwars and Nayanmars lived around the same time and were sort of in competition for the hearts and minds of the same set of people.

I think i will keep searching.

Thanks again for your response.

In the Peria Puranam (Saivite Holy Text), there are several references to Nayanmars fighting against the Jains.

The way i have tried to make sense of it is – jains and saivites/vaishnavites were fighting to establish their religion as superior using various methods – propaganda, conversions, mass conversions by convincing a king to embrace the faith and violence such as the madurai impalings. there also references to jains throwing the saivites in lime kilns (sunnambu kalvai in Tamil). So violence must have been used by both sides. Ultimately, the fact remains that there are no Jains (Or a few thousands left is what people think) left in Tamilnadu if you exclude the recent migrants from Gujarat. That means that whatever techniques the hindus used succeeded extremely well.

On the saiva/vaishnava fights also, the same kind of thing. Historical record can be sparse but you can pick up some pointers from the puranas and research them.

Additionally, there are also several instances of tolerance shown by the fighting religions. There have been Saiva kings who have erected Buddhist monuments (Rajaraja Chola and/or his son Rajendra Chola have done this). Emperor Ashoka has even left an rock edict which talks about why tolerance is important. Though he became Buddhist, he encouraged his citizens to tolerate other faiths. Emperor Akbar even tried to come up with a new amalgamated religion.

Indian kings have encouraged religions from other countries also – the famous story of Parsis in Gujarat, Jews in Kerala etc.

Good luck with your research.

I have come across your comments in another post too about vaishnavaites and shaivaites killing each other or how the hindus killed off the jains in Tamil Nadu.
I am very much interested in the history of Tamilnadu from 8th to 15th century.
I keep trawling the net, but i am not able to find lot of stuff about that period. (Maybe my search terms are not good)
Could you please give some references (books or websites) where i could find such material.
More specifically about the slaughter of jains in Tamil Nadu.

Thanks,
Sheela

/** What Gandhi achieved (unifying people) by sathyagraha, mainly fasting **/

If Gandhi had actually unified people, then why did partition happen? Gandhi was alive then..

Sukumar often asks for data, and i hope, i can expect the same for this statement..

Yes, we are all witness to the chaos galore in Andhra Pradesh today. Vamsi Poondla has contributed two extensive fine posts on the subject on this blog.

Regarding Gandhi, can one ever recover or re-create the Mahatmas. That is why they are called as such!

I am a believer in the Enlightenment tradition of a “common humanity.” Please see JFK’s quote at the start of this post to understand what that means in simple terms.

(i.e.) irrespective of the planetary divisions in terms of castes, creeds, races, ethnicities, genders, classes and what not the challenge of human life everywhere is the same.

Nothing exemplifies this better than the environmental challenges and all the debates that happenned around the Copenhagen summit and beyond !