Descriptive Catalogue of Govt Collections of Manuscripts Part 1 Hymnology

SR No.: 018037
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hiralal R Kapadia
Publisher: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute
Publication Year: 1957
Total Pages: 402
Language: English, Sanskrit
Classification: Catalogue & Catalogue
File Size: 14 MB

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Preface JAINA HYMNOLOGY
Before I end this Preface, I may take a bird's eye-view of the Jaina hymnology :
Religions can be broadly divided into two classes according as they firmly assert or deny the existence of God who is usually looked upon as the omnipotent and omnipresent Creator of the Universe. For God of this kind, there is no place in Jainism. For, it considers each and every disembodied soul that is perfectly liberated and unlimited in knowledge as the highest Deity. Next in rank are the human beings who have attained omniscience by completely annihilating attachment and aversion. Amongst them the Tirthankaras are held in hige esteem, especially for the noble and ennobling path they chalk out for eternal emancipation from shackles of birth and death and for unadulterated bliss in toto. All these perfectly evolved souls are objects of great admiration, glorification and worship for one and all the Jainas irrespective of their subscribing to the Śvetām bara or Digambara doctrines. Versified songs of praise composed in their honour are known as Jaina hymns'. The Sanskrit equivalents for 'hymn' are siuti, stotra, stava, samstava and stavana, and the Prākrit ones thui, thaya, thava, samthava etc. Some of the hymns consist of only four verses, the first panegyrizing some particular Tirthankara, the second, all in general, the third, the holy canon of the Jainas and the fourth a god or a goddess, a devout votary of the Jaina śasana, the spiritual regime of the Tirthankara extolled in the first verse. Sometimes we come across such hymns as confine themselves to only one of these four items at a time.
Some hymns while eulogizing the paramåtmans according to the Jaina view, supply us with philosophical dissertations. Most of these hymns, have been assigned a place in Vol. XVIII dealing with the Jaina darśanika literature whereas some of the hymns which are looked upon as part and parcel of the canonical literature of the Sverām bara Jainas, have been treated in Vol. XVII. Thus it will be seen that the Jaina hymns have been spread over Volumes XVII to XIX. Of these hymns the canonical ones are as under:---