Jainas in History of Indian Literature

Author(s): Jinvijay
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown

Page 26

NARRATIVE LITERATURE OF THE JAINAS
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Of great importance are also the Kathānakas, tales of a more popular character which are intended to serve at the same time the purpose of religious edification and of telling amusing stories, such as the Kālakācāryakathānaka, the Uttamocaritrakathānaka, the Campakasreşthikathānaka and Pālagopālakathānaka of Jinakirtisūri (15th, cent.) and the Pāpabuddhi-Dharmabuddhi-Kathānaka. These Kathănakas are generally written in a kind of popular Sanskrit that is a Sanskrit influenced by the vernaculars.
In later times the Jainas have also compiled great collections of tales, often with a frame story, such as the Samyaktvakaumudī, which A. Weber has published in 1889 and compared with the « Arabian Nights", the Kathākosa (translated by C. H. Tawney, London 1895 and another Kathākosa by Subhasilag aņi, who is also the author of the Pañcasatīprabodhasambandha, JineŚ vara's Kathānakakośa (Bhandarkar's Report 1883-84, p. 41 ff), the Antarakathāsamgraha of Rājasekhara, the Kathāmahodadhi of Somacandra (compiled in 1448 ) and the Kathāratnākara, compiled in 1600 by Hema vijay a, a German translation of which has just been published by Prof. Hertel.
Granthamālā, Poona. See also Proceedings & Transactions of the First Oriental Conference, Poona, Vol. I, 1920
pp. CXXIV ff. 1 See Hertel, 1. c. pp. 21 f. But there is also a Kālakācār,
vakathānaka of Bhävadovasūriin 102 Prākrit verses.