Yasastilaka and Indian Culture

SR No.: 001609
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur
Publication Year: 1968
Total Pages: 566
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Story, Literature, & Culture
File Size: 16 MB

Page 72

CHAPTER IV
YAŠASTILAKA AS A PRose ROMANCE The history of Sanskrit prose romances shows a lamentable gap after the masterpieces of Bāņa and Subandhu; and when prose romances reappear two centuries later, they bear the impress of new influences and point to a somewhat different literary environment. In the first place, most of the Sanskrit prose romances of the tenth and eleventh centuries were composed by Jaina writers, who were eager to expound and glorify their religion, and may be said to have introduced a religious element into this branch of literary composition. In the second place, there is an increased tendency to mix prose with verse, and the two earliest extant Campūs were, in fact, composed in the tenth century.
Somadeva's Yasastilaka owes a good deal to Bāna and Subandhu in the matter of style and the treatment of conventional topics, but it differs from all other Sanskrit prose romances in so many respects that it may be said to stand in a class by itself. Apart from its special characteristics as a prose narrative, Yasastilaka combines features which bring it into relation with diverse branches of Sanskrit literature. It is not only a Jaina romance in prose and verse but a learned compendium of Jaina and non-Jaina philosophical and religious doctrines, a manual of statecraft, and a great repository of Kavya poetry, ancient tales, citations and references, and numerous rare words of lexical interest. Somadeva's Yasastilaka is a work
sive scholarship enlivened by occasional flashes of literary genius and poetic feeling.
Among his predecessors in the field of prose romances, Sonadeva mentions Bāņa in Yasastilaka, Book IV, and shows some acquaintance with his works, especially the Kādambari. He clearly refers to the deprecation of the life of the Sabara hunters uttered by the parrot in Bāņa's romance, and quotes a phrase from the passage in question. Somadeva's claim that the religion of the Arhat enjoys great renown in the works of Bāņa among others should, however, be taken with a grain of salt. Bāņa, indeed, refers to Jaina mendicants carrying peacock feathers in Kādambarī as well as Harşacarita', and in the former work describes Vilăsavati as respectfully offering food to naked Jaina mendicants called Siddhas and asking them questions about the future. The Jinadharma, compassionate to living
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1 'आहारः साधुजननिन्दितो मधुमासादिरिति कथं चेदं मृगयोपयोगानन्दं शबरवृन्दं निन्दतावादि बाणेन ।' 2 ofera una corona:' Kādambarī; 'fatlaatu714 5 THA
frana: Harsacarita, Book II. 3 'स्वयमुपस्तपिण्डपात्रान् भक्तिप्रवणेन मनसा सिद्धादेशान् ननक्षपणकान् पप्रच्छ ।'.