Studies in Jainology Prakrit Literature and Languages

SR No.: 001597
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: B K Khadabadi
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy
Publication Year: 1997
Total Pages: 460
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Literature, & Language
File Size: 22 MB

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Studies in Jainology, Prakrit
of Truth” (As Prof.R. Williams would put it) is presented candily and accurately by Tiruvalluvar in the Chapter on Satya - truth:
That indeed is truth, if the words expressing which do not cause any harm or injury to anybody (1.30.1).
If any goodness is to come out from some falsehood, that falsehood (or the words expressing it) also stand in the very rank of truth (1.30.2). This peculiar Jaina meaning and interpretation of truth in these two couplets can be rightly compared with that given by Acārya Umāswāmi in his Tattvārtha-sūtra - VII-14 and by his commentator Ācārya Pujyapāda in his Sarvārtha-siddhi - VII-14.
Now in this context, a question arises as to how to account for Tiruvalluvar's plan and design of his Kural, with the addition of part II, Porul - Artha (Socio-economic, Political and Administrative Matters) and part III, Inbam-Kama (Idealised Love)? Tiruvalluvar, as a pious (Jaina) householder, scholar, poet and a keen obscrver of the society round about him must have thought of the householder's socio-economic responsibilities as well as his duties towards the state - which was of monarchial type with Kingship in those days; and he might have also felt the nced of the householder's being equipped with the knowledge of idcalised love for a conjugal and happy married lifc; and hence he may have added these two parts too through commendable exertion, self- study and in the course of such altempt and also as inspited hy his ecletic attitue and catholic spirit, he must have drawn upon the various authorities from the Brahmanic sources like the Manusmrti, Mahabharata, Arthasastra, Nītisastra, Danacandrika, Vatsyāyana etc., and thus made his classic a worthy comprehensive treatise on the art of living for the good of all people.
There are of course several examples of such attempts in the history of Jaina literature : for example, the author of the Kannada Vaddaradhane, the earliest available Jaina classic in prose (c.925 A.D.) even though a Jaina monk has profusely drawn upon a number of Brāhmanical works of various strata to make his