Amrita Collected Papers by A M Ghatage

SR No.: 006968
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: Kasturbhai Lalbhai Smarak Nidhi Ahmedabad
Total Pages: 530
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 10 MB

Page 200

Narrative Literature in Jain Māhārāștrī
The narrative Literature in Jain Māhārāstrī is wide in extent and varied in contents and form. It includes the lives of the mythological personages in Jainism, short stories and fables, legendary and semi-historical accounts of Jain monks of eminence and powerful kings converted to Jain religion, and popular. romance. But in all these species of literature Jainism cannot claim originality both in conception and execution. The epics dealing with their prophets are clearly modelled on the Brahmanic epics and Purānas; and the oldest available work of this nature, the Paumacariya of Vimalasūri, not only draws on the Rāmāyana both for its story and literary form, but expressly mentions its author with a tinge of contempt! We may find an older example of this dependence, if we suppose that the lost work of Bhadrabāhu, called Vasudevacariya, contained the same material as is found in later works bearing the same title, a fact made probable by the conservative nature of Jain traditions. As suggested by Muni Jinavijayaji?, with a fair amount of probability, the model for the Prabandhas, in which Jain writers take a special interest, is to be found in the Brahmanic works dealing with the lives of such ancient kings as Vatsarāja and Naravāhanadatta, even though all existing Brahmanic works of this nature are very late. In the case of popular romance, we have the testimony of the grammarian Patañjali”, that nany romances, presumably in Sanskrit and by Brahmanic writers, existed in the second century B. C., while the Brhatkathā of Gunādhya was probably a Brahmanic work. The case of popular stories and fables, however, admits of a different solution. The stories in Brahmanic works like the Pañcatantra, the Buddhist Jätakas and Jain stories, all presuppose a common heritage from ancient Indian folklore; while mutual borrowings, though existent, are late and easily detectable.
The question“ of the priority of Prākrit over Sanskrit in the writing of this secular literature stands on a different footing. It is seriously contended