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personalities (Salakapurusas) described together in one book, (ii) life-stories of these religious great personalities described independently in a work, (iii) religious tales in romantic form, (iv) semihistorical Prabandhas and (v) compilation of stories in the form of Kathākošas.
However, main objective of the narratives was religious exhortation meant for the masses. It may be noted that most of the literature of this form, excluding canonical texts belong to this period, i.e. c. 3rd-10th A. D. Though Some prominent works of the narrative literature such as Trisasti-salākāpurusa of Hemacandra. semi-historical Prabandhas Prabhāvakacarita, Prabandha Cintāmani. Akhyānāmanikośa, Prabandhakosa etc. have been composed between c. 12th-14th A. D.
In the first category Caupanna-mahāpurusa-cariam of Silankācārya (c. 9th A. D.) depicts the life of 54 out of 63 Salākā purusas, leaving out 9 Prativasudevas, in Prakrta containing 10,800 verses. It deals with 19 characters out of 54 exhaustively, while the remaining characters have been described only in few pages. It belongs to Svetambara tradition. In Digambara tradition, Jinasena and his pupil Gunabhadra (c. 9th A. D.) also composed Mahāpurāņa or Trisașticaritra in Samiskrta. It is divided in two parts - Ādipurāna and Uttarapurāna, describing the life of 63 great personalities of Jainism. On the same theme Puspadanta also composed one of the greatest works of Apabhramsa language, namely Trisastimahā purusa-gunalankara (later c. 10th A. D.). Puspadanta carries to perfection the possibility of Apabhramsa as a vehicle of poetry.
Second type includes many Kathās, Akhyānas and Caritas in Samskrta, Prakrta and Apabhramsa. It deals mainly with the biographies of individual Tīrthankaras and other celebrated personalities of their times. The first and foremost work of the
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