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.[citation needed] 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]
^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, PMC5270277, PMID28197009
