Jain Stories 01

Author(s): Mahendramuni, K C Lalwani
Publisher: A B Jain Shwetambar Terapanth Samaj

Page 14

INTRODUCTION
Short stories have been used as a convenient medium for educating the people in religious tenets, moral principles and ethical norms For this purpose, every country has its own fables, legends, short stories and the like and these together, poetry apart, constitute one of the early literary forms which human mind had devised and used From Greece, we have the well-known Aesop's Fables In this country, we have innumerable Pauranic legends and an equally large number of stories such as those contained in the Panchatantra, Litopadesa, etc So goes the story that a Brahmin named Vishnu Starma produced the five principles of state-craft in story form to impart lessons to the sons of his patron and king who were totally averse to education and would take to no sane advice or discipline Besides these, every country has its legends, like the legends of Greece and Rome, of Persia, of India and of China And then there are the folk tales some of which, like De's Folk Tales of Bengal, have been collected and put into print, while others are in currency as words of mouth. Because of its infinite efficacy and popularity, this form of literature has become a precious cultural treasure with all ancient peoples surviving to this day and continues to inspire people. from generation to generation
The Jaina Agamic texts are a complex affair, apart from being vast To make then intelligible, the authors. have included many illustrations, even stones, which are now a part of the Sramana cultural tradition Some of these texts, notably the Vipaka Sutra, which itself is the 11th principal test (anga), are wholly in story form, and in this particular Sutra ten stories illustrate the pleasant experiences of life and another ten the unpleasant experi