Aspects of Brahmanical Influence On Jaina Mythology

Author(s): Shaktidhar Jha
Publisher: Bharat Bharti Bhandar

Page 23

İntroduction
6
his predecessors, the author of AP eulogises the work as a nonpareil creation of Gunādlya, and while equating his work with the said romance by taking recourse to double-entendre, he very ingeniously refers to it as 'a charming long narrative of excellent theme and marvellous import, (as also) arranged in many Lambhas by the previous poet(s) Gunādhyale (rich in merit)'. From this and similar other instances we can reasonably infer that the early Jaina Purānakāras had thorough acquaintance with the work which must have survived till the eleventh cen. tury A D. when the work was rendered into Sanskrit by two Kāśmirian poets.19 Now, on the basis of the temporal priority of the BK 20 to the early Jaina Purānas as also on the strength of the above evidence of their fair acquaintance with it, we can legitimately assert their indebtedness to the said work.
The influence of the BK raages from the adoption of several motives to the incorporation of tales and episodes The episodical legends inserted in the narrative of the Salākāpurusas are of varying n lture Sometimes these are inserted as preludes to the main narrative to account the events of their previ. ous esistences, while at times they form the part of the main narrative to describe the various experiences in their final incarnations as the Salākāpurus 2, 21 The dramatis personae of 18 अद्भुतामिमा दिव्या परमार्था बृहत्कथाम् । लम्भरनेकै सन्दब्धा गुणाढ्य पूर्वसूरिभि ॥
äna, 1 15 comp Dandın, Kavyādarsa where the author bas referred to the BR almost 10 similar terms, TTATT SETTreat apet,
a-l 33, Winteraitz, A History of Indian Literature, Vol II, p 499 19 There arc Ksemendra's Brhatkathāmasljari composed about 1037
AD and Somadeva's Kathasarıtsägara, which was written about A.D 1081 Nepalese poet Budhasvämın also abridged it under the name of Brhatkatha'sloka-Sangraha This work is earlier (c 900 AD) than the
two Kasmirian recensions Sce Keith, HSL, pp 268 ff 20 The original Brhalkaiha is placed in the first century AD Sec A
Macdonell, HSL, P 376 Some of the scholars are not in favour of ascribing such an carly date to the work They are, however, sure that its date is not later than A D 500 Sce The Classical Age, p 324,
Keith, op cit, p 268 21 eg Tie a coats of previsus existences of the Finas, Rşabha and
Santinitha, and the narrative of Sanatkumara