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BRHAT-KATHAKOŚA
as ascetic tales are concerned, the Nos. 126-8, 130, 132, 136-7, 193-44 etc. have their basic references in the Païņņas of the Ardhamāgadhi canon as well. Some of the events and stories connected with Harivamsa in general and Krşņa Vāsudeva in particular (Nos. II, 29, 34, 76, 78, 88, 93, 106, 108, 118 etc.) have their counterparts in the canonical texts like the Antagada. dasão and other earlier texts like the Vasudevahindi of Sanghadāsa' and the Harivamsa of Jinasena'. These Jaina sources contain much that is interesting and independent so far as Krşņa legend is concerned. Dr. Alsdorf has critically studied them, and he remarks thus: 'In all these [ Jaina] versions one has to admit, to a greater or smaller degree, a secondary production from the literary tradition of the Brāhmaṇas. By the expression secondary is meant that in any case the original reception of the Krşņa and Mahabharata sagas has not come from the Harivamsa or the Mahābhārata, at least not from the literary sources. It is indeed long-known that the real ancient Jaina tradition possesses some amount of independence as against the Brahmanic one, and even occasionally, though in rare cases, has preserved an old original trait which is obliterated from the epic-Purāņic tradition as available to us'. The stories of Vişnukumāra, Kadārapinga, Cărudatta etc. (Nos. 11, 82, 90 ) are traced to the Vasudevahiņdi (pp. 120, 296). The details about the life of Cărudatta (No. 90), who is closely associated with the Jaina Harivaṁsa, who with his companions like Marubhūti, Gomukha etc. and his connections with Kalingasenā reminds us of some contexts in the Bșhatkathā, and who has been immortalised by Bhāsa and Sūdraka in their plays, deserve to be studied critically with the help of Jaina and non- Jaina sources. The Pandava-legend, so far as the early Jaina sources like the Nāyādhammakahão, Païnnas etc. are concerned, is closely associated with the Krsna-legend in which Krsna figures as a brave hero. We have in this Kośa a few tales connected with Pandavas (Nos. 58, 83, 96). Once the author narrates the story according to the Mahābhārata, but condemns it as heretical and incredible (No. 83. 45-9). The killing of Paraśurāma' on the field and subsequent destruction of Brāhmaṇas twentyone times by Subhūma (Nos. 59, 122), which are also described in the Vasudeva hindi, Harivamsa etc., only supplement the Parasurama-legend which we get in plenty in the Mahābhārata. There is one story (No. 84) which gives the Kathănaka of the Rāmāyaṇa; and there is another (No. 89) in which Şītā is passing through an ordeal after which she accepts Jaina renunciation under Samyamasena. J. Dahlmann conjectures in his Genesis des Mahā. bhārata that there must have existed an independent heroic saga dealing with the conflict between Krşņa and Jarāsamdha in which the latter was killed
1 Published in the Atmānanda Jaina Granthamälä, vols. 80-1, Bhavanagar 1931. 2 Published in the Māņikachandra D. Jaina Granthamälā, vols. 31-2, Bombay. 3 Harivaṁśapurāņa, Hamburg 1936, Intro. pp. 119-20. # F. Lacôte: Essai sur Guņadhya et la Byhatkatha, Paris 1908, and also its English
translation in the Journal of the Mythic Society, Bangalore 1923. 5 I am thankful to Dr. A. M. Ghatge for kindly drawing my attention to this.
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