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________________ A BRIEF SURVEY OF JAIN LITERATURE.... 499 elucidating Jain doctrines by means of examples. They.exploited the inborn Indian love for stories in order to win over adherents for their religion. The narrative literature imbedded in the commentaries contains many popular themes. It contains some themes which occur also in other Indian and nonIndian literatures, and form part of the common treasury of universal literature. The commentaries on the Uttaradhyayana are remarkable for their wealth of narrative themes. The most important of these commentaries are those by Santi Suri and Devendraganin. In his commentary called Sisyahita santi Suri retells the narratives in quite a short form. Devendraganin, however, tells these stories in a leisurely manner. One of the most charming romances which Devendra has preserved for posterity is that of Muladeva and the courtesan Devadatta. (iii) Counterparts of Ramayana, Mahabharata (and Harivamsa) The Jains did not rest content with adopting popular epic themes such as the story of Krsna, the story of Draupadi, and others into their sacred literature and the commentaries on some of the sacred works, but they also wrote whole kavyas on the story of Rama and of the Kauravas and Pandavas, which were stories immensely popular among the Vedic Hindus. The oldest Jain Prakrit Kavya (perhaps of the 4th century A. D. or even later), the Paumacariya (Padmacarita) by the poet Vimala Suri is a Jain version of the Ramayana. It is in pure Jain Maharastri and in the gatha metre. The life of Padma-Padma is another name of Rama-is told in 118 cantos; they are only in partial agreement with Valmiki's Ramayana. From the contents of this Prakrit epic it is evident that Vimala Suri knew Valmiki's Ramayana. He finds fault with Valmiki for misrepresenting the true narrative of Rama and claims that his version is a faithful representation. Vimala's work served as a model for most of the Jain versions of the story of Rama presented in later works such as Padmapurana of Ravisena3 (678 A. D.), Paumacariu of Svayambhu (middle of the 8th century A. D.), Cauppannamahapurisacariya of Silacarya (868 A. D.), Mahapurana of Puspadanta (965 A. D.), Kahavali of Bhadresvara (11th century A. D.) Trisastisalakapurusacarita of Hemacandra (latter half of the 12th century A. D.) and others. Some salient features of the Jain Ramayanas may be mentioned here : Whereas the hero of Valmiki's Ramayana moves in an entirely Vedic Hindu atmosphere, in the Jain Ramayanas the religion of the Jina is very much to the fore. The Tirthankara Rsabha is glorified. The Vedic animal sacrifices are denounced and so too the priestly class. The kings are generally pious laymen who retire from the world in their old age and become Jain monks. The stories of the previous births of the heroes are told with a great wealth of detail. Sermons are inserted on the dreadful consequences of killing and of the eating 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 |