[1] The dominant emotion of this epic is love, and its predominant object is the inculcation of Jain principles and doctrines.
Based on these fragments, the epic appears to be the story of a merchant with an overseas trading business who married two women.
[1] The surviving stanzas of the epic, and the commentaries that mention Valayapathi, suggest that it was partly a text that was disputing and criticizing other Indian religions,[4] that it supported the ideologies found in early Jainism, such as asceticism, horrors at meat-eating (Non-violence), and monastic aversion to women (Celibacy).
Tamil scholar and publisher of classical literature, U. V. Swaminatha Iyer mentions in his autobiography that he once saw a palm leaf manuscript of Valayapathi in the Thiruvaiyaru library of his teacher, Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai.
Another Tamil scholar V. Subramania Mudaliar has also written about seeing a palm leaf manuscript of Valayapathi.
However, some scholars contend that the epic's story has been retold in the 35th chapter of Vanikapuranam written by Chintamani Pulavar in 1855.
The content of the recovered verses are consistent with the ideals of Jainism and have led to the conclusion that this epic is a Jain religious work.
Rejection of worldly pleasures, advocation of asceticism, misanthropy and praise for chastity, horror at meat-eating, the vision of constant change and transiency all point to the epic's author being a Jain monk.
Earlier works like the 17th century poem Tamil vidu thoothu mention the great epics as Panchkavyams.