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Gunapāla and His Jambuca riyam
121
It is a problem of research as to when and how these intervening stories came to be associated with the main story of Jambu. How many earliest stories of the biographical account of Jambu are there and how many intervening stories made way into the main story and when ? these are the problems and exhaustive study of which is possible only if a comparative assessment of all the stories regarding the life of Jambu is made available and a thorough examination into the background of the history o their growth is undertaken.
When Prof. Jacobi brought out his edition of the Parisiştaparva, he had, perhaps not complete information about a huge member of Manuscripts mostly unpublished, dealing with the life of Jambu. This accounts for the fact that he has focussed his attention on those intervening stories only which occur in the biographical account of Jambu that is described and dealt with in the Parisistaparva of Hemacandra. It is not a bold presumption if it is said that the biographical account of Jambu in the Parigiştaparvan is designed on the model of Guņapāla's Jambucariyan.
The language employed in Gunapāla's Jambucariyam is easy and elegant and the style forceful and fascinating. It is in prose and verse. Narration runs on fi uently and forcefally and the description is accurate and unaffected. The author does uot miss a single oppertunity to enunciate and elaborate the principles of Jainism even when he is preoccupied with the main topić, He fulfils his religious mission effectively and impratially. The transitoriness of the life, the worthlessness of the world and the commendability of the moral and ethical behaviour form the refrain of all his didactic, outpourings, exhortations and sermons.
The publication of this Jambucariyam of Guņapāla is one step forward in the direction of the Narrative literature of the Jainas in Prakrit published so far.
AS-16
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