________________ Introduotiori in mind and wishing to do good to the vast majority of humanity at large, the Jaina Acharyas of old attached greater importance to them and adopted the method of writing stories and lives of great persons which they call charitas, kathas, or kathannkas, and akhyanas etc. and to-day also we find that the Jaina Sadhus reserve the latter half of their sermons for telling such stories or kathanakas composed by the Acharyas of old and in expounding them in order to impart religious teaching and knowledge to the common mass at large who hear the stories with great attention and interest. The voluminous Story Literature that the Acharyas of old have produced is rich both in literary and didactio qualities, & special feature of which is the high emotions and sentiments with which they are laden and the infallibility of their appeal to the hearts of the readers 5. As we have said in the beginning Ratna : s'ekharasuri's Sirisirivalakaba or The place of Si- rivalakaha in Alkhavana, as it is called by Akkhayana, as it is called by the story litera. Gautamaswami, occupies a very ture of the Jainas. important and prominent place Jainas. There are, no doubt, many other
