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Narrative Literature in Jain Māhārāștri
205
Still later, we have another work dealing with the life of the Jain Tirthařkara śāntinātha by one Munibhadra, written in A. D. 1353. A few years later, in A. D. 1371, is written a romantic story of a King Śrīpāla, by one Ratnasekhara, to illustrate the effect of worshipping the Navapadas.
In the 15th c. we have the Rayaṇaseharakahā of Jinahassa, a pupil of Jayacandra. It was written in prose and verse, and covers 8000 ślokas. Still later we have the short story of Kummāputta in 180 Gāthās, written by Jinamāņikya or his pupil. It gives his life as an illustration of the wonderful effects of bhāvasuddhi, which helps even a householder to obtain omniscience.
From this brief review of these works, we come to know that they are useful to us in many ways. Besides the help they give us to understand the Prākrit languages and the Deśī vocabulary, their value as representing various types of poetic composition is not inconsiderable. Even though they are not of much historical value, the scraps of information they supply about the middle and dark ages of Indian history, are not only welcome but necessary to give us a connected picture of the many-sided activities of the same, in the present condition of our knowledge. This information is more valuable because many of these works give definite dates and places of their composition, a thing rarely to be met with in Brahmanic and Buddhist works of the same age. But their chief contribution to our knowledge lies in giving much-needed information about the social conditions of India in the middle ages. The society, they represent, is, though formally one of Jain faith, is fairly typical of all the people in those times, and can be taken to be such, without any serious mistake14.
Annotations :
1. Paümacariya ii.
2. Jaina Sahitya Samsodhaka Vol. 3. No. 2. p. 170.
3. Mahābhāsya 4. 3. 87.
4. Keith, Classical Sanskrit Literature ch. i.
5. Ed. by Jacobi, Bhāvanagar. 1914. 6. Winternitz G. I. L. Vol. iii p. 570. 7. Kävyamālā Ed. p. 47. 8. Ed. Bhāvanagar, 1930. 9. Ed. Jacobi B. I. 1926. [Annals, B. O. R. I.]