________________
Śramana January-June 2002
canonical and pro-canonical remained in Prākṛta. But in due course, they did not continue Prākṛta for its literary purposes. They used local languages where they settled and travelled. When they found that Samskṛta became the language of learning and culture practically for the entire country, they did not lag behind to cultivate it. Thus there is hardly any branch of Samskṛta literature which is not enriched by Jaina authors and teachers. They have composed grammars, lexicons, and works on poetic and metrics, apart from composing elegant Kavyas etc.
136 :
In the field of Nyaya literature, they had their colleagues in Buddhist literature. And they followed in their footsteps, and produced eminent Nyaya works either as commentaries or independent treatises to expound Jaina principles in the perspective of contemporary controversies. In due course they composed elaborate Purāņas, Kavyas in addition to logical treatises. The Präkṛta languages and literature were their speciality; and they did their best to cultivate the same even in its changing phases like the Apabhramśa. Objectives of Jainas were to convey religious principles and moral lessons to the society at large. So they always preferred contemporary living languages for this purpose. Apabhramsa language helped them very much for this purpose, and it is said that Jainas have carefully preserved Apabhramsa literature, because it was as much important and useful for their objective as Samskṛta and Prākṛta.9
Language is meant for communication and understanding and Jainas have meaning for this value. In the Tamilnadu the Jaina teachers and authors picked up the Tamil language and in Karnataka, the Kannada language. Saṁskṛta models were there before them. But that was not enough. They understood the local genius, mastered the surrounding conditions, absorbed the indigenous ideas and idioms, and composed Muktakas and Kavyas in Tamil and Kannada. Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharastra are the prominent centre. of Jainism. The contribution of Jaina writers in this direction enormous. They have composed voluminous literature in Rajasthani, Gujarati, Marathi, Hindi, of course the lucid language of India and Jainas contributed very much in this direction.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
