Jainas in History of Indian Literature

Author(s): Jinvijay
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown

Page 30

NARRATIVE LITERATURE OF THE JAINAS
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A. D.), which has been edited by P. Peterson and H. Jacobi in Bibl. Ind. 1899 ff. While these novels are original Jaina productions, the Yasastilaka of the Digambara Somade vasūri (959 A. D.), the Tilakamañjarī of Dhana pāla (970 A. D.), and the Gadyacintāmani of Oday adeva are mere imitations of the classical novel, like Bāņa's Kādambarī,
The Jainas have not only the great merit of having preserved to us innumerable stories by including them in their religious literature. They have also shown the greatest interest in the most important works of profane narrative literature. It has been shown by Prof. Hertel that the most popular recensions of the Pañcatantra are the works of Jainas. It was probably a Jaina to whom we owe the so-called “Textus simplicior" of the Pañcatantra, and the Jaina monk Pūrṇabhadra completed in 1199 the Pancākhyānaka or the Pañcatantra in the "Textus ornatior”. Another Jaina monk, Meghavijaya, compiled in 1660, the Pañcākhyānoddhāra which calls itself an extract from the Pañcākhyāna, "compiled for the easier grasp of boys”, but has added a number of stories which are not found in other versions of the Pañcatantra. The best text of the Simhāsanadvātrimsikā that has come down to us, is again the Jaina recension. That the most amusing collection of mugdhakathās, the Bharatakadvātrimsikā, an Indian "Book of Noodles', is the work of a Jaina author, has been rendered probable by Prof. Hertel in his edition of the work (Leipzig 1921).