Narrative Tale in Jain Literature

Author(s): Satyaranjan Banerjee
Publisher: Asiatic Society

Page 13

xii
A.D. from Jain Vishva Bharati University where nearly 222 stories were collected.
The commentaries of the Jaina Agama texts are a fountain of Jaina stories and fairy-tales. The famous commentary of Devendra (11th cent. A.D.) on the Uttarādhyayanasūtra many interesting short stories like Bamhadattacariyam, Mandiya, Domuha. Udāyana, Bāravaí-viņāsa, Mūladeva, Karakanļu and many others are given. These stories are edited by Hermann Jacobi in his Ausgewälte Erzählungen in Māhārāştrī, zur einfürhrung in des studium des Prākrit (Selected Narratives in Māhārāstrī as an Introduction to the study of Prakrit), Leipzig, 1886 (translated into English by J.J. Meyer in his Hindu Tales, London, 1909). There should be a collection of Jaina stories from the commentaries of various texts. Besides these anecdotes, fairy-tales etc., we have the lifestories of the 24 Jaina Tirthankaras where lots of stories are incidentally interspersed in order to illustrate their - preaching and to show the greatness of their penance.
The stories about Jaina Salākāpuruşas “Excellent Personalities" are not exempted from this system. When the individual text of the Tirthankaras and the salākāpuruşas was composed, the stories and anecdotes are heaped up to illustrate their greatness. Later on, the Jainas have composed the Prabandha-type of literature which is generally semi-historical in character. Though they deal with historical personages, they do not give the biographies or history of the person concerned, but they are collections of anecdotes and stories to exemplify some events of their lives.
The Jainas have also composed Kathākosas (collection of stories), Kathānakas (collection of fairy-tales) and the Dharmakathās (religious stories with sermons). A comprehensive Encyclopaedia of Jain stories collected from all these sources has been a long desideratum. Except a few Jains, I believe, the common Indian mass is devoid of knowing Jain stories in their life-style. There are illustrative stories mainly in the Ārādhanā literature of the Digambara Jains. Last but not least, it should be borne in mind that the Hindu Epics-The Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata, the Purānas and the Krsna legend are also