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JAIN JOURNAL
accounts our principal source of information is literature, both secular and religious, produced and preserved by the different sects and religious communities that flourished side by side. And the most important communities to whom we are indebted for these literary sources, are without doubt, the Hindus, the Buddhists and the Jainas. Of these, the Buddhist sources have long been fully studied and explored. The Brahamanic sources have also been exhaustively studied and still engage the attention of scholars. But the Jaina sources have so far been utilized to a small extent. The little and scattered work that has been done on them is, however, enough to indicate their possibilities and to impress their value as a rich source of history.
As a possible source of historical information the known and available Jaina material may be classified as follows :
Historical Literature
(i) Histories : Under this head we have first, the dynastic chronologies of India, particularly with reference to Ujjain for the one thousand years or so after the death of Mahavira. These records have been preserved in several works viz., The Tiloyapannatti, Harivanja Purāna, Hari Bhadra's Avašyaka-Vrtti and Mahāpurāņa, and in a number of later works like Trilokasāra, Parisistaparvan, etc.
Secondly, there are several works like Harivansa Purana, Kadamba Purāna, Bhuvanapradipikā, Rājāvall Kathā, Padma Purāņa, which deal with the history of important Jaina gurus and laymen in the background of a general history. In this connection, mention may also be made of Rājāvall which is one of the best of mediaeval histories. Rājāvalt gives the description of the emperors who had been on the Delhi throne. It also describes the history of the foundation of Delhi. From the time of Anangapal when the city was founded it was called Dhilli. There are also a number of historical documents, even political chronologies or dynastic lists relating to later times, like the Rājavansa Varnan, Nemināth Caritra by Ajay Raj Patni, which give the names of rulers with important events of their reign."
(ii) Pattāvalis and Gurvāvalis : There are works like the Harivanja Purāņa, Adi Purāņa, Jambūdvipa Prajñapti, Dhavala, Jai-Dhavala, Sthavirāvali, etc. which contain an account of pontifical succession lists of the Jaina asceties, congregations samghas, Ganas, Gacchas, etc. that developed during the past two thousand years.
"Dr. P. C. Jain, Granth Bhandars in Jaipur and Nagaur, p. VIII.
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