Contribution of Jainas to Sanskrit and Prakrit Literature

Author(s): Vasantkumar Bhatt, Jitendra B Shah, Dinanath Sharma
Publisher: Kasturbhai Lalbhai Smarak Nidhi Ahmedabad

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Jain Contribution to Sanskrit Literature
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The ethical import is all supreme, that “Vice ever faileth." His Ksatracüdāmaņi is a poem in Il chapters on the life of Jivadhara and is in most places on Sanskrit rendering of the Tamil work Jivaka-cintamani.
Kathānaka (Stories) 23. Purnabhadra, Jinapati Suri's pupil, was a Svetămbara Jain monk. He revised Pancatantra at the instance of Somamantrin in 1199 A. D. It is marked by the appearance of twenty-one new stories, including a famous one of the gratitude of animals and the ingratitude of man.
Pūrņabhadra used an earlier Jain recersion whose author quotes Magha and Rudrata must have therefore lived after the 9th century A. D.
24. Somacandra was the pupil of Ratnasekhara of Tapa Gaccha. He wrote his Kathā mahodadhi, a collection of 120 Jain stories, in 1504 (1448 A. D.) beginning with the story of Karpuraprakara. Bharata Kādyatrimsika contains 32 stories of Jain origin, satirical of Brahmin usages.
Anthologies (Subhasita) 25. Amitagati was a Digambara Jain ascetic and pupil of Madhava Šena. He wrote Dharmapariksa (in Sam. 1070) and Subhāsitaratnasandoha in Sam. 1050 (994 A. D.) during the reign of king Munja of Dhara.
Campu 26. Somadeva traces his spiritual descent through Nemideva to Yaśodeva and was a Jain. He was patronised by the eldest son on Prince Arkesari of the Calukya race, a feudatory of the Rastrakuta monarch Krsnarajadeva. He wrote his Yaśastilakacampu in saka 881 (951 A. D.). in seven āşvāsās, this book relates the story of king Yasodhara, Lord of Avanti, with his capital Ujjain, the machinations of his wife, his conversion to Jaina faith, his assassination and rebirth. The last three chapters form a popular hand-book of devotion supplementary to, and explanatory of, the sacred texts of Jainism.
As a landmark in the history of poetic literature, it is particularly valuable. Somadeva names several authors who adored the religion of Jina and as an incident of the narrative, mentions some other ancient poets.
The colophon to his Nitivākyämrta mentions another work of his Mahendramātali sankalpa. Nītivākyāmsta follows Cāņakya's Arthaśāstra.