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

Page 90

Studies in Jainology, Prakrit
The earliest available Kannada classic, poetry of a very high order, is the Adipurāṇa (941 A.D.) by the great Pampa, who is known in the scholastic world as Adikavi and also as Puranakavi. The earliest but-one Kannada prose work is the already referred Trisasti- lakṣaṇa- mahāpurāna (978 A.D.) by Camundaraya. The reputed Pampa, Ponna and Rana known as the Ratnatraya of Kannada Literature, have composed respectively the Adipurāna (941 A.D.) the Santipurāṇa (950 A.D.) and the Ajitapurāṇa (993 A.D.). These and several other Purānas (composed on the various Tirthankaras and other Śalākāpuruṣas) are evaluated as excellent religious and literary works in Kannada. Camundaraya, in the Introductory Part of his work, states that there had been a great tradition of eminent teachers composing the Mahapuranas, such as Kūcibhaṭṭāraka, Śrīnandimunīšvara, Kavi- Parameśvara, Acārya Jinasena and Gunabhadra; and that he has mainly based his work on those of Acārya Jinasena and Gunabhadra.
The voluminous Mahapurana (Adipurana and Uttarapurana) of these two celebrated saints and teachers, composed in Sanskrit, is well known. Parameśvara's (or Paramesthi's) Mahapurāṇa, from which Caamundaraya quotes a few Sanskrit verses, has not come down to us.
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We can say that it was in Sanskrit; and according to Dr.A.N.Upadhye, (Literary Predecessors of Camuṇḍarāya, Journal of Karnataka University (Hum.), Vol. VI, 1960), it could be in the Campū form. About Kucibhaṭṭāraka and Srinandimuni, the earliest in this line of the Purāṇakāras, and also about their Manapurānas, we are in complete darkness even in respect of their being referred to by any others elsewhere. Could it be that their Mahāpurānas, or at least one of the two, were/was composed in Prakrit? Almost all early Jaina works are found to have been composed in Prakrit.
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