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Literary activities of Jainas in the seventeenth century
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was translation or adaptation from religious texts in Sanskrit or Prakrit so that they could become accessible to the lay followers, who were ignorant of these languagges. Thus many Jain writers of Hindi were also scholars of Sanskrit, Prakrit and Apabhramsa and have works to their credit in these languages. 16 It would be however a mistake to think that the Jain laity totally refrained from producing any literature.
In fact, the Jain laity, as distinguished from the members of religious order, primarily wrote in vernacular languages, including Hindi and more or less, avoided the classical languages. In this connection it would be interesting to compare the achievements of Jains with Khatris and Kayasthas, the two other non-Brahmin literate communities of north India. It appears that the Jains produced more literary works than the members of either of the two communities. This may be explained again by the nature of vocation usually pursued by the Jains. Usually the Jains carried on independent business or associated professions. They avoided petty jobs in the administration which were mainly dominated by the Kayasthas as well as Khatris, especially the former.17 Hence, whereas the Jains enjoyed ample leisure and funds to indulge in their literary pastimes, the other two communities usually lacked them. Furthermore, in course of their wanderings as traders, the Jains acquired more varied experience of life and times than the Kayasthas and Khatris and these were reflected in their literary achievements. Nevertheless, the primary theme of Jain writers was religious, although they did touch upon secular matter.
The greatest piece of secular writing produced during this period in Hindi was Banarsidas's autobiography Ardhakathanak, which incidentally also happens to be the first autobiography in the Hindi language. 19 The work has already attracted considerable attention of literateurs
16.
Mention may be made of poets Bhagvatidas, Salivahan, etc. See, Kamta Prasad Jain, op. cit., pp. 100-115 ff. Yasovijayaji wrote in Sanskrit and Gujarati, Ibid., p. 152
See my paper "Social attitudes of Indian trading communities in the seventeenth century", in Essays in Honour of Prof. S. C. Srakar, New Delhi, 1976, pp. 193-200
18. Banarsidas, Ardha Kathanak, Nathuram Premi (ed.), Bombay, 1970.
17.
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