Shwetambar Sthanakvasi Jain Sabha Hirak Jayanti Granth

SR No.: 012052
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Sagarmal Jain, Ashok Kumar Singh
Publisher: Parshwanath Shodhpith Varanasi
Publication Year: 1994
Total Pages: 176
Language: Hindi, English
Classification: Smruti_Granth & Articles
File Size: 10 MB

Page 168

If literature is considered to be an intergral part of culture, then we must say that the literature of Jainas is extremely rich and extensive. The Agamic texts themselves have great literary value and the works like the Bhagavati, jñātādharmakathā, Vipākasruta, Uttarādhyayanasūtra and Dasavaikālika are great and original literary products and the last one, composed by Brahmin Sayyambhava at Campa, around 400 B.C. can be compared with the Bhagavadgita and the Dhammapada.
The story literature of the Jainas can be compared with the literature of the Hindus. Even the Agamic texts are extemely attractive story-texts and the Jñātadharmakathā, Vipākasruta and the Antagadadasă etc., have innumerable stories and even love-stories are also abundant. The two epics and the missing Brhatkathā have deeply influenced the Jaina narrative literature and hundreds of Svetāmbara and Digambara works were composed in imitation of the above mentioned Brahmanical texts.
The earliest non-Agamic Jaina literary work, is the Paumacariyam of Vimala, composed in all probability, in the 1st century A.D. It is, in our opinion the earliest Prakrit work of India and probably somewhat earlier than the missing Brhatkathā of Guņādhya. It is the Jaina version of the Ramāyaṇa and the poet has shown considerable originality in his treatment of the Rama-story. Although Vimala has not cared to mention Vālmiki by name, he has scrupulously followed the original work; however, everywhere there is a Jaina bias. Later Jaina Ramayanas like those composed by Ravisena, Svayambhu, Hemacandra etc., are all based on Vimala's admirable work.
The Mahābhārata saga also has influenced the Jainas, and we have in the Vasudevahindi, the Harivamsa (by Jinasena Il) and the later Pandavapuranas, the stories from the Mahābhārata and even Hemacandra, the great Kalikālasarvajña was influenced by the original Mahābhārata in his celebrated Trişastisalākāpurusacaritra. The Brhatkathā literature has left its mark on the works like the Vasudevahindi, the Harivaṁšas, Brhatkathakośa etc. However, in all their literary works, the Jaina writers have shown great skill and maturity.
However, the most original among the Jaina writers of the medieval period was Somadeva, the celebrated author of the Yasastilakacampū, written in the middle of the 10th century A.D. It is a great novel, composed by a writer, who was probably a native of Bengal in some respect, we can call him the Bānbhatta of the Jaina literature. He has wit and a keen sense of human and
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