Narrative Tale in Jain Literature

Author(s): Satyaranjan Banerjee
Publisher: Asiatic Society

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taken up by the Jainas to suit their own purposes. A satire of the Hindu fictitious stories was found in the Dhūrtākhyāna of Haribhadra (705-775 A.D.) in the 8th century. The same tradition of story-telling of the Jains has been carried over in the older stages of modern Indian languages like Rājasthānī (Mārwārī), Gujarātī, and Hindi, and in the south Indian languages like Kanarese, Telugu and Tamil.
I have outlined in a succinct way the varied sources of Jain stories, anecdotes, legends and fairy-tales in order to illustrate how these stories are inserted in sketching the life-stories of the Jaina great men. It is, indeed, to be noted that "the mass of narratives and books of narratives among the Jainas is indeed vast. They are of great importance not only to the student of comparative fairy-tale lore, but also because, to a greater degree than other branches of literature, they allow us to catch a glimpse of the real-life of the common people. Just as in the language of these narrative works there are frequent points of agreement with the vernaculars of the people, their subject-matter too, gives a picture of the real life of the most varied classes of the people, not only the kings and priests, in a way
ch no other Indian literary works, especially the Brahman ones, do." (Winternitz, History of Indian Literature. Vol. II. 1933. pp. 545-46).
It is a fact worth noting that why the Jains insert stories while describing the life-stories and tenets of Jainism. It is probably because of the fact that from illustrative stories and literary poems the common people are better instructed than by reading any serious texts of human knowledge for attaining Dharma, Artha, Kāma and Mokşa. The adage says
catur-varga-phala-prāptiḥ sukhād alpadhiyām api/ kāvyäd eva........... nirupyate //
“The obtaining of the result of four class (i.e. dharma, artha, kāma and mokşa) can be got easily from the study of a kāvya even by a low-meritted person."
It is further said that by studying kāvya-śāstra the learned men pass their time at ease