KBC Offline Quiz: Tirutakkatevar has written which of the following book?
Panchatantra
Meghaduta
Jivaka Chintamani
Natyashastra
Answer: Jivaka Chintamani
Jivaka Chintamani or Civaka Cintamani, is
one of the five great Tamil epics. Authored by a Madurai-based Jain ascetic
Tiruttakkatēvar in the early 10th century, the epic is a story of a prince who
is the perfect master of all arts, perfect warrior and perfect lover with
numerous wives. The epic is organized into 13 cantos and contains 3,145
quatrains in viruttam poetic meter. Its Jain author is credited with 2,700 of
these quatrains, the rest by his guru and another anonymous author.
The epic begins with the story of a
treacherous coup, where the king helps his pregnant queen escape in a
peacock-shaped flying machine but is himself killed. The queen gives birth to a
boy. She hands him over to a loyal servant to raise, becoming a nun herself. The
boy, Jivaka, grows up into a man, rather a superman, one who is perfect in
every art, every skill, every field of knowledge. He excels in war and erotics,
kills his enemies, wins over and marries every pretty girl he meets, then
regains the kingdom his father had lost. After enjoying power, sex and
begetting many sons with his numerous wives, the epic ends with him renouncing
the world and becoming a Jain ascetic.
The Tamil epic Civakacintamani is probably
a compilation of many older, fantasy-filled unreal Tamil folk stories. The poet
skillfully couples the martial adventures of the extraordinarily talented
superman with graphic sexual descriptions of his affairs, along with lyrical
interludes of his virtues such as kindness, duty, tenderness and affection for
all living beings. The epic’s love scenes are sensuous and loaded with double
entendre and metaphors. The poetic style of the Civakacintamani epic is found
in Tamil poetic literature that followed among Hindu and Jain scholars, attesting
to its literary significance.
KBC Offline Quiz: Tirutakkatevar has written which of the following book?
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