Jain Journal 1991 10

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

Page 45

128
Narrative stories such as Dhanya (Kumāra), Kārtika (rși), Salibhadra, Cilātaputra, have entered the lore of Kannada literature descending from Prakrit Anuttaropapātikadasă. It is only with the source of Ardhamagadhi cannon, a scholar will be able to explain the origin and development of these stories. The main character of Śreņika, perhaps modelled on Janmejaya of Mahabharata, solely responsible for the Puranas and other stories, their births and rebirths, in Kannada literature is drawn from its counter part in Prakrit.
JAIN JOURNAL
There are more Neminatha Puranas, more than half a dozen, in Kannada than on any other Tirthankara and the main reason and source is Prakrit Literature.
Divakaranandi (1064) wrote a Kannada Commentary on Tattvärthasutra, the first commentary in Kannada on the famous Sanskrit work. It contains about 225 gāhās which clearly speaks of the author's proficiency in Prakrit. Santinatha's (1068) Sukumara carite, a campú kavya in Kannada has been influenced by Prakrit works on the same story. Durgasimha (1031) in his Karnataka Pañcatantram has narrated the previous births of Guṇadhya: "One Puspadanta in the Śivagana, as a punishment for overhearing, was reborn in this mundane world as Guṇadhya. Later he rose to eminence as a poet of excellence and wrote Bṛhatkatha in Paiśăci, incorporating the stories told to Parvati by Hara. In due course Vasubhagabhaṭṭa picked up only five diamond like stories from that occean of stories (Guṇadhya's Bṛhatkathā), wrote it in Sanskrit and named it as Pañcatantram. This work was acclaimed and appreciated by kings and poet laurates. I (Durgasimha) am rendering afresh that Vasubhagabhaṭṭa's Pañcatantram into Kannada." Thus this Kannada translation of Vasubhāgabhaṭṭa's Pañcatantram has a special significance of preserving a Jaina version of Pañcatantra, a parallel tradition to Visņusarma's. This Kannada poet Durgasimha has praised Prakrit writer Guṇadhya like this: "When it is impossible even to Brahma (the creator) to flatter the delicate, melliflous and limpid poetic brilliance of the famous Gunadhya, who on earth is there capable of doing it ?"
Vṛttavilasa's (1360) Kannada Dharmaparikşe, though directly indebted to Amitagati's (1014) Sanskrit work, has some stories in it which originate from Prakrit Dhurtākhyāna (Haribhadra-Suri; 750), Harisena's (988) Dharma-Parikṣā in Apabhramsa and all of these works in turn ultimately points to Niśithacurņi (677) of Jinadasagaņi.