________________
12] JAINAS IN INDIAN LITERATURE
The Jainas have not only adopted epic themes such as the Krşņa legend, the story of Draupadī, and others into their sacred writings and the commentaries on them, but they have also their own Epics and Purāņas. The earliest poem of this kind is the Prākrit epic Paumacariya by the poet Vimala Sūri, written 530 years after Mahāvīra's Nirvāņa. This is the Jaina Rāmāyana, and served as a model for other adaptations of the Rāma legend such as Ravişeņa's Padma-purāņa in Sanskrit (678 A.D.), and Hemacandra's Jaina Rāmāyance.
The earliest Jaina adaptations of the Mahābhārata is the Harivams'a Purāņa of Jinasena (783 A.D.”)
But it is above all the legendary biographies of the 63 “ Excellent Men" (uttamapurisa ) which constitute the most popular substitutes for the Brāhmaṇical Epics and Purāṇas among the Jainas. These are the works called "Purāņas' by the Digambaras or the caritras by the Svetāmbara Jainas.
The earliest of these works is the Trişaştilaksana-Maha-Purāna of Jinasena and Guņabhadra ( between 877 and 897 A. D). Among the Svetām baras Hemacandra's Trişastisalākā-puruşa-carita (written between 1160 and 1172 A.D) is better known. Its appendix, the
1 History of Indian Literature, Vol. II, pp. 489 1. 2 Loc. cit. pp. 495 ff. 3 Loc. cit. pp. 497 ff.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
