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JAIN JOURNAL
life and society in its various aspects, as obtained in the times of their respective authors.
Geographical Literature
There are several works like the Jambū Dvipa Prajñapti, Trilokasāra, Lokavibhāga, Tiloyapaņņatti, etc. which deal with cosmology from the Jaina theological point of view. In their accounts of Jambu Dvipa and Bharata Ksetra these give an interesting idea about the geographical notions of ancient Indians.
Political Literature
One of the earliest Jaina writers who deal with a significant aspect of political life, was Haribhadra Suri (A.D. 705-775), the author of Dharmabindu. In this didactic work he gives a long list of duties of a Jaina layman. One of these was refraining from disrespect to the King. We also find useful discussions of political theories and their application in works like the Adi Purāņa, Harivanša Purāņa, Dharmāśramabhyudaya, Parsvābhyudaya, Vardhamāna Purāņa, Candraprabha Caritra, etc.
Religious, Secular and Scientific Literature
There are several works written by Jaina authors which deal with various subjects pertaining to religion—such as sidhānta, pūjā, pratisthā and vidhāna and secular subjects like purāņa, kāvya, kathā, caritra, philosophy and scientific subjects like grammar, prosody, laxicography, jyotişa, āyurveda and sex, etc. In many cases these works by their references to previous works and authors on the subject help in reconstructing the histories of development of these different branches of ancient Indian learning.
Jaina Commentaries on Non-Jaina Works
The Jaina scholars wrote numerous and voluminous commentaries not only on their own canonical texts and other works, but also wrote a large number of valuable commentaries on various philosophical and other secular works of non-Jaina authorship. Many such works have reached us only through Jaina commentaries on them and but for their
2 Haribhadra Suri. Dharmabindu. I-31. On the date of Haribhadra. see Winternitz. A
History of Indian Literature II, p. 479. Read also Ghoshal U.N., History of Indian Political Theories, pp. 351, 464, Oxford, 1959.
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