Jain Journal 1977 01

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 19

JAIN JOURNAL
Caritra by Hemacandracarya, Purāņasāra Sangraha by Damnandi, Adipurāna and Uttarapurāna by Lalita Kirti and Mahāpurāna by Puspadanta. Excepting Mahāpurāna of Puspadanta which is in Apabhramsha, all these works are in Sanskrit.
Now coming to Meru Mandara Puranam, the other important Tamil Jain Purāna, we are definite about its author and his times. It is said to be the composition of Vamana Muni who lived about the time of Bukkaraya, king of Vijayanagar empire, in the 14th century A.D. It has already been published with introduction and notes by the late Prof. A. Chakravarti in the thirties of the present century. Though it is not included in the category of kāyyas, it resembles in excellence of literary diction the best of Tamil kāvya literature and hence is considered to be one of the important Tamil classics. The work narrates the stories of prevoius births of two princes, Meru and Mandara and expounds important doctrines of Jaina philosophy through the frame-work of the story. The story of the previous briths of Meru and Mandara, the heroes of this Purāna, already finds place in Chapter LIX in 212 verses (verses 108-319) in the Uttarapurāna of Gunabhadra (circa 897 A.D.) and is said to have served a basis for this work. The learned composer, Vamana Muni, elaborated it in 1405 stanzas dividing them into 30 chapters. It may be interesting to note that this story is also contained generally in all other Mahāpurānas which had been in existence at the time of its composition. At least in Chapter LVII dealing with Sanjayanta-Meru-Mandara episode in Apabhramsha Mahāpurāņa of Puspadanta we find it. Not only this, Samantabhadracarya (circa 2nd century A.D.) in sloka 19, Chapter TII, in his Ratnakaranda Srāvakācāra in Sanskrit had made a reference to Satyaghosa, one of the characters of this puranic story, as an example of one who had to suffer on account of telling lie. Prabhacandra (circa 11th century A.D.) in his Sanskrit commentary on the said work elucidated the anecdote further. There are, however, some minor variations in different versions of the story which is but natural.
From the above dissertation it is evident that the theme of both these Tamil Purānas was not new, but the credit of presenting the same in Tamil in a befitting manner and in their own style goes to the learned composers. It is hoped that these Tamil Purānas would provide interesting material for those doing comparative study of the various works on the same theme.