Aspects of Brahmanical Influence On Jaina Mythology

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

Page 64

Aspects of Brahmanical Influence on the Jain Mythology
Now so far as the term Itihāsa is concerned, it denoted derivatively the factual account of the past events i e. the actual traditional history It was this factual nature of the Itihasa which served as a diferentiating factor between it and a Purāna This factual character of the former is substantially conveyed by the mono-syllabic particle ha forming its constatuent, for the term Itihasa has been derived from a queer combination of rtr-ha-asall (thus indeed was) It was possibly on this score that both the Puranas and the Itihasas were treated as different branches of ancient Indian saga This distinction between the two is clearly vindicated by a number of vedic and post-vedic referencesiwherein both are posed to gether as different branches of traditional lore
Not withstanding the fact that we meet with the frequent references to the Purāna or Purānas in the Pre-Purānic works, the works concerned do not throw any light on the precise character of the Puranas. It is only the extant Puranas that afford us a glimpse of their character by the enumeration of the engrediants which are stated to have made up the original Purāna or Purānic collection 18 From that enumeration it becomes clear that originally the Purānas, referred to so often, must have been in the form of tales of gods, seers and celebrated kings together with their genealogies and exploits, which later on crystallised into the five subjects14 that 'gave rise to the term Pancalaksana as a special epithet of the Purana'
Similarly, the Itihāsas which were traditional historical tales took definite shapes as the two national epics, the Ramayana and the Bharata Or the two the latter, also called the
11 Dr Jyotiprasad Janna seems to have been mistaken in deriving the
term from 1ta-sha-âso See The Jaine sources of the History of Ancient
India, P 1 12 Cha Upa VII 1 4, AGS III 3, Manu iu 232, Tõjnāvolkya I 45, Also
sec Supra Dotes 6-8 13 Above potc 2. 14. Abovc DoIC 4.