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readers. If the characters suffer on account of their sins, the reader is expected to abstain from similar acts; and if they are happy as a result of their pious acts, the reader becomes a conärmed believer in those virtues,
It has been possible to trace the subsequent growth of Jaina narrative literature from the earlier seeds in the canonical and postcanonical texts. Certain types with their broad traits can be easily listed. First, there are the lives of 63 Salākā-purusas, intermingled with cosmographical and dogmatic details, intervening stories and moral preachings whereby they are looked upon as eminent Purāṇas and held in great veneration. Secondly, there are the biographies of individual Tirthankaras with their various births and their celebrated contemporaries. Thirdly, there are the religious tales presented in romantic and celestial settings. Fourthly, there are the semi-historical Prabandhas which give interesting details about holy persons and places. Lastly, we have the compilations of tales called Kathākosas on which Teachers and Preachers have always drawn to illustrate their moral lessons.
In between the second and third types, we can put a large number of Jaina works, in proze and/or poetry, in various languages : some of them deal with the lives of individual religious herpes such as Varānga, Jivardhara, Yasodhara, Nāgakumāra and Sripāla; then there are edifying tales of pious householders and ladies who devoted themselves to the observance of certain vows and religious practices; then there are short biographies of ascetic heroes well-known in early literature; and lastly, there are tales of retribution illustrating the results of good and bad thoughts, words and acts here and elsewhere. Some characters are drawn from earlier literature, some from popular legends, and some even from imagination: the setting however given to all these is legendary, often with divine intervention. This category includes many Kathās, Akhyānas and Caritas in Sanskrit, Prākrit and Apabbramsa. It is an essential qualification of a Jaina monk that he should be able to narrate various stories. Naturally Jaina teachers gifted with poetio abilities, inspired by great models of classical Sanskrit and trained in the niceties of Sanskrit grammar, diction and poetics, began to-compose the Caritas etc. in ornate prose and/or verse in Sanskrit.
What holds good in general about the Jaina narrative tales is true about these ornate poems also. 'Pages after pages are devoted to the past and future lives; and the vigilant and omnipotent law of Karman
