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Another classification arranges the entire religious literature into four anuyogas or divisions. The first of these, the prathamänuyoga covers the Jaina puraṇas, purāņic kāvyas or caritras (life stories) and all the other narrative literature. Prof. J. Hertel, who made the story literature of India his special study, has shown in his many writings how much the Jainas have contributed to Indian narrative literature in prose and verse. He holds them to have been 'the principal story-tellers of India during the middle-ages down to modern times', and says, "Always fond of story-telling, the Jainas were good stroy-tellers themselves, and have preserved to us numerous Indian tales that otherwise would have been lost to us". Dr. Winternitz also remarks, "The Jainas have always had a special liking for any kind of popular poetry, especially folk-tales. Jaina literature, both canonical and still more non-canonical, is a very storehouse of popular stories, fairy tales and all kinds of narrative poetry."
LITERATURE
In fact, apart from the principal Purāṇas which deal with the previous births and accounts of the sixtythree 'Excellent Men' including the Tirthankaras, written in Prakrit, Sanskrit, Apabhramsa, Kannada, Tamil, and the vernaculars, particularly Hindi, the Jaina versions of the epics Rāmāyaṇa and Mahabharata, the Puranic caritras dealing with the life stories of notable, religious men and women, the Prabandhas, giving the lifestories of important monks, and diverse other religious kathās (stories), the Jainas have produced religious novels, allegories, dramas, and satires. There are many independent collections (katha-kośas) each containing numerous stories.
They have also shown the greatest interest, according to Hertel and Winternitz, in the most important work of profane narrative literature. For example, the popular recension of the Pañcatantra are the works of the Jainas, the best text of the Simhasanadvātrimśikā, that has come down to us, is again the Jaina recension, the most amusing collection of mugdha-kathās, the
