Narrative Tale in Jain Literature

Author(s): Satyaranjan Banerjee
Publisher: Asiatic Society

Page 16

JAINA NARRATIVE LITERATURE
ADINATH NEMINATH UPADHYE
A) CANONICAL STRATUM The Ardhamāgadhi canon, though recast into its present shape much later, contains undoubtedly old portions which can be assigned quite near to the period of Mahāvira, the last Tirthakara of the Jainas. We possess in this canon a good bit of narrative portion which is characterised by didactic and edifying outlook: it covers biographies of religious heroes such as Tirthakaras and their ascetic disciples including the salākāpuruşas, explanatory similes, parables and dialogues, and didactic and exemplary tales and pattern stories of men and women turning into monks and nuns and attaining better births in the next life.
The two texts, Acārānga and Kalpasūtral give a biography of Mahāvira vividly describing the hardships which he had to undergo in his monastic life; and Bhagavati, in its different dialogues, gives some side-light on Mahāvīra's personality, especially his skill in debates and in offering explanations in reply to the questions of his numerous pupils, male and female. The lives of other Tirthakaras, narrated in the Kalpasūtra, are no biographies at all. but supply the reader with a string of names (nāmāvali) with which perhaps the reciter is to give a detailed account. We get some glimpses of the life of Nemi, Pārsva etc. in other texts also.
1. For the editions etc. of these texts the readers are referred
to A History of Indian Literature by Winternitz, Vol. II (Calcutta 1933) and Die Lehre der Jainas by Schubring (Berlin and Leipzig 1935). For economy of space only essential bibliographical references are given.