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literature of the Jainas. From the 6th - 7th century onwards, Cāņakyan tales, narratives and analogies are found in the Jaina Māhārāstrī, Jaina Saurasenī and Sanskrit literature. [6] The modes of references in the Śvetāmbara texts :
Around 50 references of Cāņakya are found in Svetāmbara literature. Somewherer only the name is given. At other places a particular story or incident is given in two-three verses. Cūrņis present scattered stories or the whole biography in prose-form but very briefly. The commentaries of Upadeśapada and Upadeśamālā contain Cāņakya's biography in around 200-250 Prakrit verses. Hemacandra's Cāņakya-kathā in Sanskrit is the ultimate collection of all the previous episodes. [7] Cāņakya's personality depicted in the Svetāmbara and
Digambara texts :
Digambaras honoured Cāņakya mainly for his peaceful and pious death. Digambara-references are approximately one-third in number and scope in comparison with the Svetāmbara-references. While dealing with Cāņakya, the Digambara writers throw awfully dim light on the personality of Candragupta. They present Cāņakya himself as a king or a sage-like-king. Harișeņa's Cāņakya leads a big group of 500 ascetics and marches towards dakṣiṇāpatha. We observe a slow steady growth in the Cāņakya-narratives of the Svetāmbaras but in the Digambara literature, Harişena's Cāņakya-muni-kathā is exhaustive and it prevailed over all the later Digambara-tales. Cāņakya in Śrīcandra's Kathākosa is more real and convincing than Harișeņa. The influence of Hindu purāṇas on Harișeņa is evident. Though Harișeņa gives references to Cāņakya's durga-gamana etc.
