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NARRATIVE TALE IN JAIN LITERATURE
fragments of Indian folk-lore and they are written by some Jaina theologians for the purpose of the edification of the votaries of that religion."62
The value of all these stories lies in the fact that they seem to be a depository of very many ancient, historical or semi-historical tradition'. It also states that ancient India possesses a great mass of popular narrative themes most of them being unknown to us. With regard to the extent of this type of literature, Winternitz63 says : "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 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 which no other Indian literary works, especially the Brahman ones, do." Dr. J. Hertel has also said that the "characteristics of Indian narrative art are the narrative of the Jainas. They describe the life and the manners of the Indian population in all its different classes, and in full accordance with reality. Hence Jaina narrative literature is among the huge mass of Indian literature, the most precious source not only of folk-lore in the most comprehensive sense of the word, but also of the history of Indian civilisation. The Jaina's way of telling their tales differs from that of the Buddhas in some very essential points. Their main story is not that of the past, but that of the present, they do not teach their doctrines directly but indirectly; and there is not future Jina to be provided with a role in their stories. "64
(Taken from the Introduction of Mānasāgara's
Kānhada Kathiyārā ri Caupai ed by Satya Ranjan Banerjee, Sanskrit Book Depot (P) Ltd., Calcutta, 1980.]
62. Tawney's Kathākoşa p. vii. 63. Ibid., pp. 545-46. 64. J. Hertel. On the Literature of the Svetambaras of Gujarat,
Leipzig, 1912.
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