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Hymns in Prākrit
Jain writers have written a considerable amount of hymns or Stotras of no small merit. As in other departments of literary writings, they have tried to vie with Brahmanic poets in composing hymns of devotion, and have vied with considerable success. Ever since the days of Rgveda, the production of hymns addressed to various gods was continued by Indian poets, and this activity has resulted into a vast amount of hymnal literature of no mean value. In its long and eventful career, however, many changes were effected both in the subject matter of these Stotras and in the spirit of devotion underlying them. To the gods like Varuna, Sūrya, Indra and Vişnu, new gods like Krsna, Rāma, and Durgā, were added, either taken over from the gods of the original inhabitants of India, or from local deities of various places, claiming greater attention. The Jain writers also offered panegyrics to the prophets of their own religion, who soon acquired a position of gods to whom prayers and worship can be offered, and still later, their immediate disciples like Gotama and others acquired their own share of praise. .
But along with this widening of the subject matter of these hymns, a similar change came over the spirit underlying them. The naive simplicity and the matter-of-fact dealings of the Vedic poets gave place to a more and more spiritual and devotional sentiment, in which the poet raised the object of his devotion to a higher plane and lowered himself down to a great extent, a fact aided by the new theory of Bhakti or devotion. Similarly while praising the gods of one's religion the poet passed with imperceptible steps to the principles of his creed, and so the more philosophical and logical hymns were produced. And when once the fact that a short hymn can be used to express in a succinct form a particular dogma or a few outstanding ethical principles in a charming and attractive manner was realised, the hymns began to draw their subject matter from all the varied departments of knowledge from great philosophical problems to a list of mythological personages.