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V.B.Tharakeswar 87Another problem that is haunting us, Translation Studiesscholars is that of the language-culture overlap or equating class,caste and language. This is also due to the fact that we generallylook at literary histories chronologically and not at their spatialspread (topos) and we take a single language/literature as a unit ofconstruction of its history. We only grudgingly acknowledge its linkwith other languages or literatures. If those who are looking attranslation practices firmly base their analysis on empirical data, thisproblem could be overcome. But for such an analysis, TranslationStudies has to, as a precondition, look at the spatial spread ofliterature that maps literature not only chronologically but alsospatially. If we don’t do it, then we would apply certain theorieswhich would tell us that translations from Sanskrit was from an alienland/culture; which was high culture and it was imposed on us; andthrough our subversive practices (i.e. mainly through translation) wenegotiated the hegemony of Sanskrit and developed the vernacularliteratures and democratized certain non-available religious texts intothem.Let me explain this with translation practices in pre-colonialKarnataka. Let me begin the story from second or third century B.C.According to well-known traditions, Jainism entered South India in amajor way in 300 B.C. When there was a twelve-year famine, a largegroup of Jains headed by Srutakevali Bhadrabahu, accompanied byKing Chandragupta, left Madhyadesha and came to Kalbappu(Shravanabelagola). Another small group moved towards Tamilcountry. But there is evidence of the existence of Jainism in SriLanka and in the Tamil region from around 6 th century B.C. That is adifferent issue altogether. It is enough to understand that there weretwo streams of Jainism that came to South India at different points oftime. In Tamil also we find that many of the early texts are Jainatexts. Authorship and its relation to religion are contentious issues.Still I would like to quote some of the texts claimed by Jainascholars as Jaina texts: For example, Tolkaappiyam (450 A.D.),