________________
14. JAIN LITERATURE AND PERFORMING ARTS
Preliminary Observations
Jain literature is a matter of continuous literary activity of some twenty-five hundred years, embracing eight or nine different languages. Apart from its staggering voluminousness, its variety and richness are quite imposing. Other significant facts about it are that much of it (especially the innumerable tales and narratives) relates to the middle and lower strata of society, the subjectmatter has usually been drawn from the ordinary life of people and frequently the treatment is considerably realistic. Quite obviously, therefore, Jain literature can serve as a highly fruitful source of information for all the periods and aspects of Traditional Indian Culturel
Even for our present limited purpose, it is a very vast field, demanding a book of several volumes for a systematic account and as such, far beyond the scope of a seminar paper. I will, therefore, delimit the enquiry by excluding technical literature (eg. works on dramaturgy or musicology) or dramatic works in the main tradition by Jain authors, and will confine my observations to three areas, viz., (1) audio-visual presentation of narratives, (2) dramatic types, and (3) songs and music. And there, too, no attempt would be made at any sort of survey2. My endeavour aims only at drawing attention to certain pieces of information gleaned from a few Classical texts, mostly in Prakrit, and showing their importance for the history of performing arts in the Indian Tradition. It will be seen from what follows that the value of the Jain data lies for the most part in supplementing or filling up information gaps in non-Jain sources.
1. Audio-visual Presentation of Narratives
We have had a very long tradition, extending over some twenty-five hundred years, of presenting religious narratives in accompaniment with showing of corresponding pictures. 3
