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of the Jains, the canonical books which form the
Sidhanta' of the Swetambaras.' I speak of those books only which have been cornposed by latter authors. The commentaries on the sacred books in Prakrit and Sanskrit form a literature, by itself more voluminous still, than the sacred books which are said to contain 5 lakhs of granthas. Besides the works which explain the terets of Jainism, the great number of Kavyas, both in Prakrit and Sanskrit, have come down to us which describe the lives of saints, especially those of Tirthankar. These Charitras' are, only partly printed, the greater part still are accessible in manuscripts only. Some of them are written in the true Kavya style employing those poetical ornaments which are taught in the original Sauskrit; other Charitras are in a niore simple style of easy narative; they usually contain a great many legends and other stories which the Jains knew to tell so well. For there is no other class of Indian writers except perhaps the Buddhists of old, who are so fond of stories specially such as have a moral than the Jains. It is to them that we owe the “Panchtantra” in the reductions which have had the widest circulations. But in another respect also Jain literature is of great importance for our knowledge of the ancient
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
