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The Jaina Contribution to Indian Poetics
I
A number of studies are available giving an idea of the number of Jaina authors on Alankāraśāstra. The object of this paper is not to add to their number by mechanically cataloging them in a historical order. I would like to highlight a few points which are solid contributions by Jaina thinkers to the mainstream of indian thought on poetry and which are in the nature of new watersheds or new turns given to conventional ideas.
II
It is long known to scholars that the earliest reference to nine rasas of "kāvya" (nava kāvyarasa) is to be found in Anuogaddāra, an early cononical text. It is also realised that the first mention of santa under the name pasanto (Skt. praśānta) is to be had here; and Velanao (Skt. vrīḍanaka) is reckoned here in place of bhayanaka (Vide, Agamodaya Samiti Series Edition, p. 134). But what is not usually emphasized is the fact that Kaluno (Skt. Karuna) is used here in a special sense, viz. that of Karuna, i.e. pity or compassion and not in the usual sense of 'sorrow' (soka). The word has a masculine ending as it agrees in gender with its substantive in masculine gender, viz. rasa. But its meaning was not 'sorrow' as it was commonly understood in the tradition of Bharata's Natyasastra. That is why, while listing the names of rasas in the chapter on Natya in his famous lexicon Amarakoṣa, the Buddhist lexicographer states the following synonyms all of which refer to 'pity', 'pathos', 'compassion' etc. and not even one which means 'sorrow' or 'suffering':
४०
Jain Education International
Dr. K. Krishnamoorthy
Karunyam karuna-ghṛṇa kṛpa daya-anukampa syat anukrośo'pi (Loc. cit. VIII. 226)
This new tradition is corroborated by the first Jaina author in Kannada on poetics, viz. kavirajamarga (9th century A.D.), who more than once, uses the expression karuna-rasa instead of karuna-rasa; and who recommends the literary quality of Mṛduta or 'softness' of heart' as most appropriate for its delineation in poetry. That he was following the Jaina tradition is clear also by his use of the name 'prasanta' instead of santa in his enumeration of rasas (Loc. cit. II. 100). The example cited for karuna rasa by this author, (Nrpatunga or his protege, Śrīvijayadeva, as sometimes averred) describes the love-lorn condition of a heroine and calls upon the hero to show pity on her (III. 191); there is no question of eternal *sorrow of bereavement' consequent upon death of the beloved here.
आचार्य रत्न श्री देशभूषण जी महाराज अभिनन्दन ग्रन्थ
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