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SAMBODHI
Digambara Jains also told and collected stories in Sanskrit and other Indian languages. It is in all of these Jain writings that much of the medieval India story literature as a whole has been preserved, and without them we would know much less than we do of the popular culture of the medieval India.
The present book is but a collection of translations of some of these Jain stories that were originally written either in Sanskrit or in one of the older vernacular languages, known by the collective name of Prakrits, related to Sanskrit. Most of the translations in this volume are of the stories in the Svetāmbara Jain tradition.
The material in the Jain canon, its commentaries, and the story collections that grew from this older tradition is often didactic. But, in addition to avowedly didactic stories, Jains also recounted the lives and deeds of people who were important to their tradition. They also collected and told stories about their holy places. The boundary line between Jain "biographies" in particular and the didactic story is admittedly fluid; on the one hand, biographies may incorporate didactic stories, they may, on the other hand be used as didactic stories. At the same time biographies could be preserved in didactic story collections and yet lack a clear didactic purpose. Jain biography collections also from time to time include stories about famous poets and kings who were not specifically connected with the Jain tradition. Collection of the deeds of monks and nuns, pious laymen and women, appear regularly from the 12th century onwards. Biographies of the Jinas, the founding teachers of Jainism, have a longer history, but they continued to be a popular subject in medieval times.
The book is divided into two parts; the first part being a selection of didactic stories of manners and morals, while the second part consists of stories of peoples and places from the biography collections and a pilgrimage text. Part I comprises three chapters. Chapter 1 contains a parable, entitled "The Peacock's Egg”, from the Nāyādhammakahão, translated by Willem Bollee. Chapter 2 contains stories from the Avasyaka
ries translated by Nalini Balbir. She has presented these stories by dividing them in three sections, viz., (A) How can Sāmāyika be gained, (B) Definitions and illustrations of repentance, and (C) A collection of 32 catchwords defining Jaina Yoga. Section A contains 11 stories, and sections B and C contain 8 and 32 stories, respectively. Chapter 3 comprises stories from the later didactic story collections, presented again into three sections. Section A contains the story of the Faithful Wife Rohini from the Akhyānakamanikośa translated by Prem Suman Jain. Section B contains stories on "Giving" from the Mülaśuddhiprakarana, translated by Phyllis Granoff. Section C contains the story of Yasodhara about Karmic retribution from the Brhatkathākosa, translated by Friedhelm Hardy. Part II comprises five chapters. Chapter 1 presents the stories of monks, poets, faithful wives and other, like Bhadrabāhu and Varāha, Aryanandila, Jīvadeva, Aryakhapatācārya, the poet Harsa, Madanakīrti, and two biographies of Mallavādin; all these stories being translated by Phyllis Granoff. Chapter 2 comprises two stories of Ambika and Kapardin in which mortals become gods, from
