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Subjects Dealt With
1137
Purára etc. In these Purāņas along with the lives of Tirthankara, the lives of other personalitis such as Rama, Krišna, Pāndavas etc. are also given. Therefore definition of Purāpa given by the Samskrit Acăryas does not apply to Jaina Purăņas. The Jaina Purānas describe the life of a particular personality in a good and artistic manner. Some Purāņas are written in such a fine language that instead of calling Purānas, they may better be called Kivyas. Purāņas written by Jinasenācārya, Gunabhadra, Swayambhu and Puşpadanta are such examples.
The Jaina Bhandārs of Rājasthān contain most of the Purāņas written by the Jain Ācāryas. Such Purāņas are written mainly in three languages i.e. Sanskrit Apabhramba and Hindi.
SAMSKRIT PURĀNAS
Ācārya Ravişena is belived to be the first Jaina scholar who wrote the first Jaina Purana namely Padma' Puråna in Vira Samvat 1204 1.e. 678 A.D. He was the pupil of Laksamanasena. The Purāņa has several Adhikärs containing 123 Chapters in all and a total number of śloka is about 18,000. It deals with the life of Råma who was among the 63 great personalities. In the beginning of 9th century there were two Jaina Ācārya namely Jinasena and Gunabhadra. Acārya Jinasena, the Guru of King Amoghavarşa (815 to 877 A.D.) wrote first part of the Mahapurăņa which is called Adipuräna? and deals with the life of Ādinātha the first Tirthankara and his son Emperor Bharata. Ācārya Guņabhadra completed the second part of the Mahapurăņa after the death of his teacher Jinasena. This part is called Uttarapurāņa'. Both the parts are the biographies of 63 'Greatmen' that is to say 24 Tirthankars, 12 Cakravartis and 27 Heroes (9 Baladevas, 9 Vasudevas and 9 Prativasudevas).
Acārya Jinasena II, composed Harivansapurāna' in the 8th and 9th century. This is a big work containing about 12,000 verses. In this work Life of Neminatha along with legends of Krişna and Balrāma are told in a Jainistic setting. As a matter of fact this is a Mahābhārat according to the Jaina faith.
1. Amer Sastra Bhandar ki Grantha Suci Jaipur. p. 87
2. Ibid. 3. Ibid.
p. 11. p. 15
4. Ibid.
p. 161.
