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SAMBODHI relate the old stories as have been handed down to them by literary and popular tradition. The only significant addition they make is the sermon of the Kevalin (accomplished monk, possessor of the perfect knowledge, the completely enlightened) at the end of the story explaining the cause or causes for the misfortunes suffered or prosperity enjoyed by the characters in the story. The Jain monks were very shrewd and practical-minded. They made full use of the inborn love for stories on the part of Jain laity for the propagation of their Dharma.
In the various types of works, excepting some of the semi-historical works (prabandhas), certain traits arrest our attention as they are hardly noticed in other branches of Indian literature. These traits are : (i) Pages after pages are devoted to the past and future births; (ii) the inexorable law of karman plays a very conspicuous role; sermons with dogmatic details are introduced; and (iv) parables and illustrative tales are added here and there. The spirit of asceticism is writ large throughout the texts, and almost as a rule every hero retires from the world to attain better status in the next life.
In whatever situation the stories describe, they are all genuinely human, even when a certain story goes on to condemm in outright terms the common human weakness to submit to the pleasures of the senses or be willing to be carried away by worldly happenings and the feelings they arouse or when it highlights passions that hold the mind and soul of man in their tight grip, or when it openly recommends a path of selfabnegation. These stories present saintly characters caught up in moments of temptation as well as men and women of weaker mettle that would like to give up pleasures and live a life of simplicity and purity, but really cannot. They also tell us how very difficult it is to give up pleasures, and how impossible it is to give up desire for them. The story of Brahmadatta, an unfortunate prince who failed to achieve what his friend succeeded in achieving, has been chosen for treatment of a theme that is daringly modern; it is chosen from the same branch of knowledge, viz., Heredity, from which the French novelist Emil Zola chose his themes.
Many of the stories selected here are based on the typical Indian metaphysical belief of which karma is the sine qua non, and inevitably confines human life in a deterministic framework, and every such story spreads over an enormous time span easily covering a couple of life times, and relying on Rebirth. To moden readers rebirth may look like a prologue to the bigger them of evolution. It need not be, therefore, concluded that the Indian story looks down upon the ephemeral happenings and passing moments. There are at least four stories here that describe how a man suddenly develops the wisdom of the Buddha through a casual event like the sight of a faded garland or of an old bull that was once a very symbol of virility and youth. A passing moment transforms itself into a moment of discovery, of enlightenment, and a common man into a New Buddha. . The story of the Mākandi brothers' voyage should find a worthy place in the voyage literature of the world, by the side of Haklyut's Voyages and many other Spanish and Italian accounts. The terriable Indïan witch, called Ratnadvīpadevatā, who charms the
