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STUDIES IN JAIN LITERATURE
beautiful and moving stories in world literature. It is sung "in words of matchless beauty. It is a story full of tenderest pathos and the most moving emotions”. It is a work that is "a popular epic and ornate poetry at the same time". This great epic is, no doubt, disfigured by additions and interpolations of numerous myths and legends, still it has a fairly unified form and continues to hold the rank of Ādi-kävya ! No Jain Rāmāyana, can bear comparison with Vālmīki's Rāmāyaṇa for its poetic value. In fact, none of the poets whether Hindu or Jain, equals Vālmīki, who remains thus unsurpassed. The Jain poets do not primarily aim at the kāvya style, though some of their works do possess poetic qualities. Bearing this in mind if we examine the Jain Rāmāyanas from the point of view of poetry, we find that Svayambhu and Puşpadanta stand out as poets
distinct poetic ability. They display the wealth of their poetic gift by giving us poetic ideas and flights of poetic fancy which are refreshingly original. Hemacandra stands next to them. His command of language, metre, and alaskāras and his descriptive skill are beyond question. However, the fact remains that there is an air of conventionality about his descriptions. Ācārya Ravisena impresses us by his profound scholarship but not poetry,
On the whole, we may conclude that the Jain Rāmāyanas, as a rule, are essentially Purānas. They are written not as kāvyas pure and simple but to glorify the Dharma of the Jinas and teach the people Jain doctrines and criticise the Brahmanical Dharma. It will, therefore, not be fair to the Jain poets to judge their works by the standard which we apply to the mahākāvyas like the Raghuvamsa, Kumarasambhava, etc., and harshly criticize them on artistic grounds.
Notes and References : 1. Śrimatmuktikamala Jainamohanamālā, Puspam 19, Baroda, 1923. p. 84, gāthā no. 14.
I am obliged to Dr. J. C. Jain for drawing my attention to this reference through Dr.
Bulcke. 2. Dr. Narasimhachar, I.H.Q., Vol. XV. 3. The Dhurtākhyāna of Haribhadra casually treats of some legends from Rāmāyana, so
too Dharmapariksā of Amitagati. We may therefore ignore these works.
DOO
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