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JAINA NARRATIVE LITERATURE
Satya RANJAN BANERJEE
1. A SURVEY OF KATHĀNAKA LITERATURE
We have a pretty large number of Jaina narratives, written in Sanskrit, Prakrit and Apabhramsa, and even in early Rājasthāni, Gujarāti and Western Hindi, and also in Kannada or Tamil, beginning from the commentaries of the Jaina texts upto the time of the compilation of Kathānaka' literature. It should be remembered, as Winternitz says that "the Jaina monks and authors have always been tellers of tales far rather than historians; because the commentaries to the sacred texts contain not only a mass of traditions and legends, but also numerous fairy-tales and stories, and moreover that the legendary Poems, the Purāņas and Caritas were often only a frame in which all manner of fairy-tales and stories were inserted. Now, in addition to all this, the Jains have produced a vast fairy-tale literature in prose and in verse, in Sanskrit, Prakrit and Apabhramsa. All these works, be they stories in plain prose or in simple verse or elaborate poems, novels or epics, are all essentially sermons. They are never intended for mere entertainment, but always serve the purpose of religious instruction and edification."2 "As is
1. "The word 'Kathānaka' does not appear to be a recognised
term of orthodox poetics, although the Agni Purana (33720) speaks of Kathānikā as a variety of Gadya-kāvya, along with Parikathā and Khandakathā, Anandavardhana (iii. 7) recognises Parikathā and Khandakathā adding Sakalakathā (all these terms being explained by Abhinavagupta in his commentary), but omits Kathānikā. The description of Kathānikā, however, given by the Agni Purāna does not apply to the so called Jaina Kathānaka." Dasgupta & De, Hist. Skt. Lit. Calcutta, 1947, p. 426 fn. 3. M. Winternitz, History of Indian Literature, Vol. II, Calcutta, 1933, p. 524.
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