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available on the basis of archaeological finds etc., some such evidence may be had.
CONCLUSION
It will be seen from the above discussions that LPS, as a Prabandhawork, displays considerable bearings on contemporary history. Therein we come across certain facts which are corroborated by known history. Regarding certain other incidents we get information from some other sources as well, wherefrom we can inser their historicity to a certain extent of certainty. The historicity of some other events cannot be ascertained at the present state of our knowledge. There are still others which have to be pronounced fictitious on account of certain superhuman and miraculous elements. We also meet with names of several persons whose historical nature is known from other sources, no information about them being available from the present text. Likewise several other persons appearing in the stories of LPS have to be considered of doubtful historicity in absence of sufficient evidence from known history. Still others appear imaginary on their very face.
It is not advisible to reject as fictitious all the names and events about whose historicity we do not possess sufficient evidence at present. This is all the more true especially in the case of the names of the courtiers of Siddharāja J a y sim ha mentioned at the commencement of the Sahasralingasarah-prabandha. Some of these persons are known to have flourished in his age, some are known to have flourished either in the reigns of his predecessors or even in those of his successors. The Prabandha-writers are well-known for confusing chronology, but they place before us the historical anecdotes in a very interesting manner. In the light of these facts we hesitate to pronounce the remaining ones as altogether fictitious and are inclined to note them down as merely of doubtful historicity at present with the hope that future researches will throw light of them.
It must be noted that the motive of the authors of the Prabandha-works is not at all furnishing history but, as Bühler puts it, it is really 'to edify the congregations, to convince them of the magnificence and the might of the Jaina faith and to supply the monks with the material for their sermons, or when the subject is purely of worldly interest, to provide the public with pleasant entertainment.' Therefore even historical events may he found enwrapped with interesting tales having no concern with history as such. It is, therefore, a very hard task to separate history from all such environments, and for that we have naturally to take help of other sources of
+ Vile Bühler: Life of Hemacandra, p. 3.
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