Jainas in History of Indian Literature

Author(s): Jinvijay
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown

Page 34

LYRICAL AND DIDACTIC POETRY OF THE JAINAS [19
1889. Here we find the famous Bhaktāmarastotra of Mănatunga, a Sanskrit poem in praise of the Jaina Ķşabha. This was imitated by Siddhasena Divākara in his Kalyānamandiru Stotra. Another hymn on ķşabha is the Rşabhapaīcāşikā of Dhana pāla, a Prākrit poem in 50 stanzas written in a very artificial style, but not without poetical beauty. Dhana pāla's brother Sobhana is the author of a Stotra in praise of the 24 Jinas (S'obhanastuti ) in which he is anxious to display his skill im employing the most difficult metres and alamkāras. Hemacandra also composed a a Vītarāgastotra and two Mahāvīrasvāmistotras.
As to didactic poetry, it is, of course, largely represented in the books of the canon. Of noncanonical works one of the oldest is the Uvaesamālā' a collection of 540 Prākrit verses containing moral instructions both for laymen and monks, by Dharmadāsa. Well known are the didactic poems of Amitagati. He wrote his Subhāsitaratnasamdoha? in 994 A. D. a work of great importance for our knowledge of Jaina ethics, and 20 years later (1014 A.D.) the Dharmaparīksā? which contains not only moral maxims but also a great number of interesting and amusing stories.
1 Edited by L. P. Tossitori in Giornale della Societa
Asiatica Haliana, 25, 192, 167–297. 2 Edited in Kävyamala 82: also with a German transla
tion by R. Schmidt and J. Hortel in Zeitschrift
der Deutschen Morgenl. Ges. 59, 1905 and 61, 1907. 3 N. Mironow has given an analysis of this work in
his dissertation "Die Dharmaparākṣā des Amitagati", Leipzig, 1903. See also R. G. Bhandarkar's Report on Sanskrit MSS. for 1884-87, pp. 13 ff., 134 ff.