Jainas in History of Indian Literature

Author(s): Jinvijay
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown

Page 32

KĀVYAS AND MABĀKĀVYAS OF THE JAINAS
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and the Mahipālacaritra of Cā ritrasundara (about the middle of the 15th cent.), in which a number of popular tales and Jaina legends are combined into a Kāvya. A contemporary of Hemacandra was Haribhadra who wrote the Nemināthacaria in Apabhraņģa and the Mallināthacarito in Prākrit. The Nemināhacaria was written in the year of Kumāra pāla's con version to Jinism (1159 A. D.). Part of the Nemi nähacaria is the Sanatkumāracarita, which has lately been published by Prof. Jacobi.
But the Jainas have not only written religious Kāvyas. The Digambara Jaina Dhananja ya Srutakīrti was ambitious enough to prove his mastership in Sleşas by writing a Dvisandhānakāvya Rāghavapāndaviya ( between 1123 and 1140 A.D.), in which every verse must be interpreted as having two meanings, the one referring to the story of the Rāmāyana, the other to that of the Mahābhārata. A half-historical poem is the Dvyāśryakāvya Kumārapālacarita in which Hemacandra wished to display his skill both in Sanskrit and in Prākrit poetry, as well as his grammatical learning. The Mahākāvya which treats the history of the Caulukyas of Anhilvād and especially of Kumāra pāla, consists of 20 Sargas written in Sanskrit, and 8 Sargas written in
I Sanatkumāracaritam ein abschnitt aus Haribh a dra's
Nomināthacaritam eine Jaina Legende in Apabhrams'a
herausgegeben von. H. Jacobi, München, 1921, '2 It has been edited with a commentary in Kāvyamālā
49, 1895. The Rāghavapāndavīya of Madhavabhatta Kavirāja is a late work, written between 1182 and 1197.
3 J