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

Page 74

INTRODUCTION
Rămacandra' etc., but their Mss. have not been accessible to me.
Kathanaka-kosa: The author is Vinayacandra, and it contains 140 gāthās in Prakrit. The text gives the name Dhammakkhāṇaya-kosa. The Pattan Ms., which is accompanied by a Sanskrit Vyakhyā, is dated Samvat 1166.
Kathāmaņi-kośa (Akhyānamaņi-kośa): It is composed in Prakrit verses by Devendragani, alias Nemicandra, who finished his Sukhabodhā commentary, well-known for its Prakrit stories, on the Uttaradhyayana, in Samvat 1129 (1073 A.D.). Devendra is famous for his lucid style, so the Mss. of this bulky work, in 41 chapters, deserve to be studied with reference to the contents. A Sanskrit commentary on this work is written by Amradeva, the pupil of Jinacandra, in Samvat 1190, just sixty years after the composition of the Kosa.1
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Kathamahodadhi: The Karpuraprakara or Suktavali of Hari or Harişena is a didactic poem containing 179 Sk. verses of lengthy metres; and deals with Jaina religious and moral principles which as enumerated by the author himself are 87 in number. It is indeed a rare thing that one is born as a man with religious surroundings, gets the necessary instruction, practises the Jaina virtues by eschewing all internal and external hindrances, and finally gets liberation. Every step of this preaching is nicely put and explained with relevant illustrations. We are told, for instance, how Neminatha practised Jiva-daya which led to his spiritual benefit and how Rāvana suffered because of his attachment for another's wife. Every verse refers to one or more legends by way of illustration. As we come to the close of the book, there are more moral exhortations than legendary references. The author Hariṣeņa was a pupil of Vajrásena, and the date of composition is not settled as yet.
It was left for the commentators to give the stories in all their details, and the number of such tales, short or long, is nearly 150. The
1 At the Naya Mandira, Delhi, there is a Punyasrava-kathakośa in Sanskrit. There is a similar work in Kannada composed by Nagaraja in 1331 A.D. In all there are 52 stories, illustrating the religious virtues like Pūjā etc. by narrating the biographies of Bharata, Karakanța, Yama, Carudatta, Sukumara, Sitä etc.; and they are divided into twelve Adhikāras. It is written in a Campu style, and the author says that it is based on a Sanskrit work (Kavicarite I, pp. 409-12). This Kannada work is translated into Marathi Ovis by Jinasena in Saka 1743 (+78-1821 A.D.).
2 Catalogue of Mss. at Pattan, vol. I (Gaekwad's O. Series No. 76), p. 42.
3 Some of them are edited by Jacobi in his Ausgewählte Erzählugen in Mähäräṣṭri, Leipzig 1886; and it has been translated into English under the title 'Hindu Tales by Meyer (London 1909); see also Prakṛtakathasamgraha ed. by Jinavijayaji, Ahmedabad.
4 See Charpentier's Intro. to his ed. of Uttara. (Uppsala 1922), pp. 56 etc.; also Peterson's Report IV, p. 59 of the Index of authors; Report III p. 78 etc.
5 The text opens with the words karpura-prakara and hence its name. 6 For a list of these Kathas see Peterson Reports III, pp. 316-19.