Jain Journal 1999 04

SR No.: 520134
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publication Year: 1999
Total Pages: 58
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, India_Jain Journal, & India
File Size: 3 MB

Page 45

NAGARAJAIAH: PAMPA-APOGEE OF KANNADA LITERATURE
163
Mahāpurāṇa. Kannada Adipurāņam became a model for the later Jinapurāņas, but all of them must take a rank well below their model.
The first few cantos are devoted to the successive previous births of Adinatha, the first of 24 Tirthankaras; Jayavarma, Mahabala, Lalitangadeva, Vajrajangha, Ārya, Śrīdharadeva, Suvidhi, AcyutendraI, Vajranābhi, Acyutendra-II are the ten repitition of births and the next birth to follow was the penultimate in the transmigration. Purudeva, born to Marudevi and Nābhirāja, happily married Yasasvati and Sunanda; Bharata, the first of the twelve cakravartis and Bahubali, the first of the 24 kāmadevas, were his eldest and elder sons; Brahmi and Sundari were his daughters. He made his children proficient in various arts and science, himself taught the art of writing to Brahmi, and from her originated the Brahmi-script; to Sundari, his second daughter, he taught the science of arithmetics. Thus the first Jina set a model of an ideal father in giving good education to the daughters also. Adideva, the hero leading a life of pleasure in the company of his consorts, had spent his ten previous births and in the eleventh birth as the monarch of a splendid kingdom, while merrily viewing an exhibition of dancing performance of the celestial dancer Nilānjanā, all of a sudden the dancer disappeared as it was the end of her life. Albeit, Indra, who had designed the performance to evoke the feelings of detachment from the terrestrial interests in Purudeva, immediately created another Nilanjana to continue the performance uninterrupted. None in the audience could make out the difference except the intended Purunatha who got the clue and decided to relinquish the profane life on the realisation of the essential ephemerality, disillusionment overtook him. He was shaken from his complacency by this incident, pregnant with deep significance. He saw in a moment's flash the hollowness of worldy life and the wisdom of seeking release from its bonds. Purudeva wasted no time and immediately swung into action, installed his sons on the respective throne, sought the peace of forest and penance and attained the eternal salvation in the end.
Pampa has handled a Jaina puranic theme in a very dignified manner; he was gifted with the required literary capacity and the basic knowledge in the field of religious literature. Thus Adipurāṇam is marked by all the distinguished qualities of great poetry and furnished the model for the Jaina-puraṇa. The traditional five auspicious events, pañca-kalyāṇas in the career of a Tirthankara (the conception, the birth, the exit, attaining omniscience and the final release from bondage by mokṣa) and the celebration of these events. The last quarter of the Adipurāņa is devoted to the celebrated story of Bharata and Bahubali, that reminds and partly resembles the episode of Duryodhana and