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 50

JAIN JOURNAL: Vol-XXXIII, No. 4 April 1999
often an entire paragraph, where it is loaded with religious sermons with Prakrit gāthās and Sanskrit slokas. On the whole, Bhrājiṣṇu's style is less Sanskrit-ridden and more Prakrit oriented.
168
Following is the format of Aradhana-Karnāṭa-Țikā olim Vaḍḍarādhanā: the text opens with the invocatory Sanskrit sloka of Ratnakaranda śrāvakācāra attributed to Samantabhadradeva; (namaḥ sri vardhamānāya nirdhūta) followed by a prose passage, which serves the purpose of introductory remarks for the whole comm. cum gloss, and at the end of this preamble, Bhräjiṣnu states that thereafter he is going to narrate the tales of all-redeeming personalities, the Mahāpurusas. Accordingly he starts telling the stories of 19 eminent personages, one by one; each story opens with a Prakrit gāthā; all the 19 gāthās as the beginning of each tale are taken from the Ārādhanā of Śivarya corresponding to gāthās Nos. 1539 to 1557 of the text. Each gāthā is literally explained in Kannada by giving word to word meaning immediately after that follows the detailed narration which expands the encoded gist of the (Aradhana) gāthā.
In the body of each story also often Prakrit and Sanskrit verses are quoted; wherever the dogmatical discourses are prominently discussed to focus the spiritual aspect, the quotations abound in number and sometimes it covers the whole page. The felicitous Bhrājiṣṇu is easily at home in Kannada, Prakrit and Sanskrit, as stated earlier; his reading is vast, his catholicity outstanding, he quotes from Bhavabhūti also. The format of each story is so well-defined and framed, from the opening line to the closing para, that very soon the reader will be familiarised with the pattern.
It is evident that Bhrājiṣṇu has not followed Hariṣena (c. 930) or Prabhācandra or any of the extant Sanskrit commentaries which are all later to AKT., in temporal terms. AKT is definitely based on a Prakrit source. For instance, it very much resembles the kaha-kosu (Kathākosa) of Siricanda (Śricandra) in Apabhramsa; in the narrative format and in content there is so much similarity that Bhrājiṣṇu and Śricandra. have followed a common Prakrit comm. of Aradhana text, which is not extant. It should be said to the credit of Bhrājiṣṇu, Śricandra, and, of course, Harişeņa that they have elaborated the stories in their own way, keeping the outline and the motive, as envisaged by the original author, in tact.
The depth and dimension of the AKT has a wide range which includes religious, social, cultural, political, historical and literary aspects. Only the three stories of Bhadrabāhu, Cilātaputra and Canakya are quasi-historical, containing historical allusions to the