Mahapurana of Puspdanta

Author(s): Ratna N Shriyan
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

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DESCRIPTION OF THE BASIC SOURCES
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As mentioned before we have selected Puşpadanta's Apabbremsa works for a study of the texts from the point of view of Deść material. We have collected material chiefly from Mabāpurāna of Puspadanta and supplemented it by niaterial from the other two works of Puşpadanta, namely, Nāyakumāracariu and Jasa ha racariu.
Barring Paumacariu of Svayambhü, Mahāpurāņa is the earliest available A pabbramsa text. It was written during A. D. 959 to 9651
A Brief Account of the Author. The author of MP., NC. and JC. is Puşpadanta. He was the son of Keśavabhatta and Mugdhādevi, who were followers of Saiya sect, but were later converted to Jainism. Poşpadanta was well-versed in Brahmanic lore as well as in Jainism. His patron was Bharata, a Rästrakūta minister of Krsna III. He lived and wrote at Mānyakheța (modern Mālkhed in Hyderabad State) a Kannada-speaking region. From the year 959 to about 972 A. D. the poet lived under the patronage of Bharata and after his death under that of Bharata's son Naņņa. During this period he wrote three works, namely, Mahāpurāna in 102 sandhis, the Nāyakumāracariu in 9 sandhis and the Jasaha. racariu in 4 sandhis. Out of these three works the MP. is dedicated to Bharata and the NC, and the JC. are dedicated to Nanna. A Short Account of the Works:
The Mahāpurāņa (MP.): Mahāpurāņa or Tisatthi.mabāpurisa-guņālaikāra is the earliest and the largest of the three available works of Puspadanta. It is a work on the lives of sixty-three Great Men of the Jaina faith. Puşpandanta entitles his work as "Mabāpurāņa" or alternatively Tisatthi-mahāpurisa.gunālamkāra, 'Adoration of the Virtues or qualities of sixty-three Great Men'. The text of Mahāpurāna is suffi. cientiy extensive. It consists of 102 sandhis divided into Adipurāna ( first 37 sandhis ) and Uttarapurāņa (38-102 sandhis). The idea of the extensiveness of the text can be gathered from the fact that the text of the MP. in Vaidya's edition along with the variants and gloss covers 1,414 pages of the royal size. The work contains approximately 20,000 kadavakas.
The Mahāpurāna has been edited and published by P. L. Vaidya in three volumes, the first volume (1-37 sandhis) in the year 1937, the second (38-80 sandhis) in 1940 and the third (81-102 sandhis) in 19416. 1. See MP. I, Introduction, p. IX and XXIX. 2. For the personal account, date and literary activity of Puspadanta see MP. 1, Introduce
tion, p XV, Premi Naihvram, Jain Sähitya aur Itibās, pp. 225-250 & Alsdorf, L.,
Harivamsapurāna, Introduction, pp. 1-10. 3. See PC. I, Introduction, p. II and “Kannada words in Desi Lexicons, Upadhye,”
A.N., ABORI, vol. II, p. 277. 4. See MP. III, Introduction, p. XV. 5. See Jain Sāhitya aur Itihās, p. 227. 6. See MP. I, Introduction, p. X.