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and encouragement of freshers and youngsters moving into this fascinating field viz., the field of the Jaina Purāṇas and Narrative Literature. Such limiting brings me on the following points :
(i) A Descriptive Master Catalogue of Jaina Purāņas. (ii) Historical core of the Adipurāņa or Adīśvaracarita. (iii) Jaina Narratives preserved in the Cūrņis. (iv) Some tips on higher studies and research in Prakrit and
Jainology.
The Jaina Purāņas actually form a branch of the vast Jaina Narrative Literature. But by virtue of their antique nature, magnitude, certain characteristic and objectives, they have assumed for themselves a class of their own viz., the Purāņas or Caritas. This class is also significantly designated as the Prathamānuyoga. These Purāṇas can be divided into two categories: (i) The Mahāpurāna or Trişaşțiśalākāpuruşa-carita (Biographies of Sixty-three Great Personages) and (ii) The (Laghu) Purāņa or Carita (Biography of one Great Personage). Unlike the Hindū Purāņas, the Jaina Purāņas have not been fixed into definite numbers (such as 18 and 8); nor are they tied to one language (such as Sanskrit). They, depending on the needs of time and place, have been composed in various Indian languages, ancient, medieval and modern, such as Prakrit, Sanskrit, Apabhraíśa and some of the regional languages, thus all these Purāņas amounting to a considerably large number spreading over a vast period ranging from a. 400 A. D. to 1700 A. D. With their peculiar cosmographical and mythological settings, the Jaina Purāņas are mostly encvclopaedic in nature and mainly aim at illustrating the life-history of great religious personages for the benefit of the liberable souls at large.
The origin and the progressive growth, for a pretty long time, of these Purāņas, of course, marks a note-worthy rich tradition of numerous Jaina teachers and scholars sincerely dedicated to composing them. But so far we have no solid means of having a panoramic view of all these Puranas, so that our studies and researches in this field would lead to wider perspectives and fresh findings. Hence, I feel the need of a
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