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________________ JAIN CONTRIBUTION TO SANSKRIT POETICS AND AESTHETICS Winternitz observes at one place! : "The Jains have extended their activities beyond the sphere of their own religious literature to a far greater extent than the Buddhists have done, and they have memorable achievements in the secular sciences to their credit, in philosophy, grammar, lexicography, poetics, mathematics, astronomy and astrology, and even in the science of politics. In one way or other there is always some connection even of these "profane" works with religion. In South India the Jains have also rendered services in developing the Dravidian languages, Tamil and Telugu, and especially the Kanarese literary language. They have, besides, written a considerable amount in Gujarati, Hindi and Marwari. Thus we see that they occupy no mean position in the history of Indian literature and Indian thought." Now, the present paper confines itself to an examination of this view with particular reference to the Jain contribution to poetics and aesthetics. Soon we will be undertaking a brief review of the published Jain works on alamkara sastra but before that we take note of the widely known work, Kavanusasana of Acarya Hemacandra who has been extolled as Kalikalasarvajna. Standard works on the history of Sanskrit poetics and Sanskrit literature make critical references to this work and devalue it. I quote from the works of Kane, De and Keith in support of this statement. Kane remarks : "The Kavyanusasana is a compilation and exhibits hardly any originality. It borrows wholesale from the Kavyamimamsa of Rajasekhara, the Kavyaprakasa, the Dhvanyaloka and from Abhinavagupta's works"?. De observes : "His (Hemacandra's) dependence on earlier works is so close as to amount at times to almost slavish imitation or plagiarism."3 And, "It (Kavyanusasana) is like most of Hemacandra's other productions, more or less an industrious compilation displaying its author's encyclopaedic erudition, but hardly constituting an Stud.-40 Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org
| SR No. | 001868 |
| Book Title | Studies in Jain Literature |
| 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 |