What is the main purpose of applying the type erasure mechanism in a programming language?

Type erasure in Java is used to ensure backward compatibility of generics with existing bytecode and the virtual machine, which initially did not support type parameterization. The main goal is to remove (erase) information about specific parameter types of generics during compilation, and at runtime, the JVM works with non-generic types. This allows using generics without changing the runtime but imposes restrictions, such as the inability to create instances of parameterized types or check their types at runtime.