Treasury of Jain Tales

SR No.: 006762
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: V M Kulkarni
Publisher: Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre
Publication Year: 1994
Total Pages: 468
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

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The life of Rsabha is told in the introductory sections of the Rama epics. The lives of Krsna and the Pandavas, the contemporaries of the Tirthankara Neminātha, are told in the Jain counterparts of the Mahabharata. We have more than a dozen life-stories of Neilătha.
The number of poetical life-stories of Pārsvanātha is very great. Jinasena, the author of Adipuräna, wrote his Pārsvābhyudaya in the 9th century A.D. It incorporates the entire Meghadūta of Kālidāsa by inserting one or two lines from it in each verse. It serves as an example of samasya-purana (a poetical exercise consisting of one or two lines of a stanza being given and the completion of it by the poet). The Pārsvanātha-caritra by Bhāvadeva Sūri was composed
255 A.D. It tells with a wealth of detail not only the life-story of Pārsvanātha in his last birth but also his previous nine births. The poet inserts in the narrative numerous stories, fables and fairy-tales. He also adds many gnomic sayings both on morality and on worldly wisdom.
A Sāntinătha-caritra in Sanskrit verses was composed by Deva Sūri in 1282 A.D.
Somaprabha (latter half of the 12th century A.D.) wrote his Sumatinātha-carita in Prakrit. The work treats of the life of the 5th Jina.
Laksmana Ganin composed a voluminous Prakrit poem Supāsanāha-cariyam in 1143 A.D. It deals with the life of the 7th Jina.
Like the Tirthankaras other holy men too have been glorified in caritras. Dharmakumāra's epic Sālibhadracarita (1277 A.D.) is an instance in point. It treats of Salibhadra, a famous legendary hero, a contemporary of Mahavira and King Srenika. The work calls itself a dānadharma-kathā' and also a "Dānāvadāna' (story of notable deeds of almsgiving).
The mahāpuranas, purānas and caritas, are, as a rule, purely legendary and belong to the realm of mythology. The lives of Pārsva and Mahavira which present many historical elements are