Narrative Tale in Jain Literature

Author(s): Satyaranjan Banerjee
Publisher: Asiatic Society

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NARRATIVE TALE IN JAIN LITERATURE
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which belongs to the domain of literary history and of history of civilization. Its solution is of equal importance for India and for the rest of the world'; and the second, *purely linguistic' one, whose solution cannot but produce results which will prove to be of fundamental importance not only for the history of Sanskrit and other Indian languages, but for the history of Indian literature as well.' He has sufficiently elaborated both these problems; and some of his remarks on the study of the linguistic aspect of these texts are highly critical and thought-provoking. He has in view especially the narrative works in Sanskrit written by Svetāmbara authors of medieval and postmedieval Gujarat; but on the whole, his remarks are equally applicable to other Jaina narrative works and deserve careful study. It is already noted above how the Karman doctrine forms the back-bone of many of the tales; and with reference to that Hertel remarks : 'Nobody will deny the wholesome influence which the doctrine of karman must necessarily exercise on the faithful members of the Jain community with regard to their behaviour, not only towards their fellow-men, but towards all their fellow creatures. Animal life is as sacred to a Jain as human life.' He fully brings out some of the salient traits of the Jaina didactic narrative texts in his following observations:
"In these books (i.e. Aupadeśika texts) as well as in the commentaries on the Siddhānta, the Jains possess an extremely valuable narrative literature which includes stories of every kind : romances, novels, parables and beast fables, legends, and fairy tales, and funny stories of every description. The Svetāmbar monks used their stories as the most effective means of spreading their doctrines amongst their countrymen, and developed a real art of narration in all the above mentioned languages (namely, Sanskrit, Prākrit, Apabhramsa, Hindi, Gujarāti, and Rājasthāni dialects), in prose and verse, in kavya as well as in the plainest style of every-day life. Beside single stories, they have compositions, in which a great many tales are embedded in frame-stories, as in the Pañchatantra, and collections of single stories resembling the collection of the Household Tales of the brothers Grimm.