Studies in Jain Literature

SR No.: 001868
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: V M Kulkarni
Publisher: Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre
Publication Year: 2001
Total Pages: 114
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Literature, & Story
File Size: 14 MB

Page 178

160 STUDIES IN JAIN LITERATURE and draw attention to the distinguishing features of this literary form which is handled by Jain poets for the propagation of their dharma and for the edification and spititual benefit of the adherents of Jainism. The earliest dharmakatha was Tarangavati by Padaliptasuri (c. 1st century A. D.). However, the original has not come down to us but only an early abridgement in 1643 Prakrit stanzas entitled Tarangalola. Its subjectmatter is briefly as follows : A sadhvi (nun), conspicuous for her beauty, tells her story. She was the beautiful daughter of a rich merchant. Once she sees a couple of ducks in a lotus pond and paints. For she remembers that in a former life she had been a duck like this and that out of love for her male duck killed by the hunter she had burned herself with him. She yearns for the husband of her former life and after a long time full of love's sorrow she finds him by the aid of a picture which she paints of the couple of ducks. Her man carries her off. While running away they are taken captive by robbers, and they are to be sacrificed to the goddess Kali. They are, however, rescued and the parents agree to their marriage. Soon after their wedding they meet a monk who delivers a religious sermon. Learning from him that he as hunter had killed the male duck in the former life, they are disgusted with samsara, renounce the world and become monk and nun. The romantic love story is very interesting even in its abridged form. It served as a prototype for Haribhadrasuri's famous dharmakatha called Samaradityakatha (second half of the 8th century A. D.). It narrates in nine successive births the story of two souls-a Prince Gunasena who was handsome and his friend Agnisarman who was very ugly. The prince enjoyed fun at his friend's cost. As a consequence of this he became an ascetic. In due course Prince Gunasena became the king, Once he met Agnisarman, repented for his past ill-treatment and invited him to take food at his place. He accepted the invitation. Thrice he went there, but Gunasena for some reason or the other could not receive him. Agnisarman misunderstood Gunasena. He was inflamed with fury and resolved "If I have acquired merit by my austerities, may I then be born again and again to kill him in every one of his births." Accordingly the souls of Prince Gunasena and his friend Agnisarman were born in nine successive births as enemies, although outwardly they were the father and the son, the mother and the daughter, the husband and his wife, etc. Ultimately the soul of Gunasena attains liberation and the soul of Agnisarman wanders in the endless cycle of birth and death. The central idea, the dominant motif underlying the long narrative and