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NARRATIVE TALE IN JAIN LITERATURE
the case with the Buddhist's Jātakas, this narrative literature imbedded in the commentaries, contains many popular themes, including some which occur also in other Indian and non-Indian literature, and form part of the common treasury of universal literature."3 So "like the Buddhist monks, the Jaina monks, too, delighted at all times in adorning their sermons with the telling of stories, in elucidating Jainistic doctrines by means of 'examples' thus exploiting the inborn Indian love for fables in order to win over and retain as many adherents as possible for their religion."4
Similarly, in this connection the remarks of Dasgupta and De are worth quoting: "There is no frame-story but the tales are loosely strung together, while the characterless Sanskrit prose is freely diversified by verses in Sanskrit, Prakrit and modern Indian languages. The Jaina authors are fond of stories and have produced them in amazing profusion, but the stories, in whatever form they are presented, are all essentially sermons, or have a moral tag attached to them; they are seldom intended for mére entertainment. The well-known Sanskrit story-motifs are utilised, but good stories are sometimes spoiled by forcing them into a moral frame. With their unadorned, but pedestrian, prose and lack of artistic presentation, the Jaina writings in this sphere are scarcely remarkable as a literary productions, but they are interesting from their unmistakable contact with the general life of the people, especially those stories which are not of unrelieved moral and religious dreariness."5
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There exist a large number of Jaina narrative tales treasured up in the Kathānaka literature of the Jainas; but all of them are not available at present. It is not the place to give a detailed account of all the Kathānakas; but some important Kathānaka texts are mentioned below for purposes of comparison: -
3. Ibid, p. 489.
4. Ibid, p. 484.
5. S.N. Dasgupta and S.K. De, A History of Sanskrit Literature, Calcutta University, Calcutta, 1947, pp. 427-28.
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