Bruhat Katha kosha

SR No.: 016060
Original Sutra Author: Harishen Acharya
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
Publication Year: 1943
Total Pages: 566
Language: Prakrit, Sanskrit
Classification: Dictionary & Dictionary
File Size: 16 MB

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BRHAT-KATHAKOŚA
Višeşāvasyaka-bhāşya as we have seen above. These lives have assumed a definite pattern, though the extent of details and descriptions etc, differ from author to author. It appears that some earlier works, like that of Kavi-Parameśvara, have not come down to us; but the works of Jinasena. Gunabhadra and Hemacandra in Sanskrit, those of Sīlācārya and Bhadreśvara in Prākrit, of Puşpadanta in Apabhramsa, of Camundaraya in Kannada and the Śrīpurāņa of an anonymous author in Tamila are available besides the minor compositions of Aśādhara, Hastimalla etc. On account of their cosmographical and dogmatic details, intervening stories and moral preachings, they are worthily classed among the eminent Purānas and held in great authority.
In the second type we have the biographies of individual Tirthakaras and other celebrated personalities of their times. We have seen how Nirvāṇakāņda offers salutations to many an eminent soul commemorated in later literature. Most of the available biographies of Tirthankaras, whether in Präkrit, Sanskrit, Kannada or Tamila, admit the traditional details, but present them in an ornate style following the models of classical Kavyas in Sanskrit: the lives of Supārsva and Mahāvīra depicted by Lakşmaņagaņi and Guņacandra in Prākrit, those of Dharmanātha and Candraprabha in Sanskrit by Haricandra and Viranandi, and those of Adinātha, Ajita and Santi in Kannada by Pampa, Ranna and Honna are good examples. Jaina tradition puts Rāma and Krşņa as contemporaries of Munisuvrata and Neminātha ; and there are many works giving the Jaina version of the Indian legends about Rāma and Krsna or cycles of tales associated with them. The Paümacariya of Vimala and the Padmacarita of Ravişeņa, even after making concession for the Jaina back-ground and outlook, do give original and important traits of the Rama-legend, though they do not conceal their acquaintance with Valmiki's Rāmāyana. Due to the introduction of Vidyadharas and their feats, these texts give a pleasant reading like a fairy tale in many portions. Krşņa Vasudeva figures in Jaina literature quite prominently: the Ardha. māgadhi canon gives good bits of information about him and his clan; he is an outstanding hero of his age, but the traces of deification, so overwh ingly patent in the Mahābhārata, are conspicuously absent throughout these references. In early Jaina works Pāņdavas are not as important as they appear to be in the Mahābhārata; and Krşņa, though not a divinity, is a brave and noble Kșatriya hero. Perhaps this represents an earlier stage in the evolution of the Pāņdava legend which, in its enlarged ar form, is available to us in the present-day Mahābhārata. The Vasudeva. carita attributed to Bhadrabāhu has not come down to us; but the Vasudevahindi of Sanghadāsa, describing the peregrinations of Vasudeva and representing a fine Jaina counterpart of the Bșhatkathā of Guņādhya, is a
..
1 He narrates a number of sub-stories illustrating the fruits of Samyaktva and of
the Atioaras of twelve Tows, and they almost elclipse the main current of the
narrativo.