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Studies in Jainology, Prakris
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(v) Tapa (penance); and (vi) Dāna (religious donation)
The Punyāsrava- kathakosa has been a very popular work among the pious Jaina house-holders and house- wives. Its very tiile signifies that the study of it by such men and women would cause influx of meritorious Karman in them. Its manuscripts are found in the various parts of India and it has been translated in different languages such as Kannada, Marathi and Hindi." It is worth noting that the Kannada scholar, Nagarāja, based his Punyasrava, in Campu style, on this work as early as 1331 A.D. The Punyasrava-kathakosa is divided into six sextions which in all have fifty-six stories. These sections give stories of outstanding men and women who were famous for the practice of the six-fold duties enumerated above. Rāmacandra Mumuksu, however, uses slightly different terms : Pujā, Pañca-namaskāra-mantra, Śrutopayoga, Sila, Upavāsa and Dana. Each story opens with a verse (in one case with two verses) that forms just a skeleton of the story narrated as an illustration. The stories are illustrated in simple prosc, but with emboxment of sub-tales and sub-sub-tales. There are also found some Sanskrit and prakrit verses quoted here and there in the course of narration. Mostly, the author of the Punyāsrava-kathākośa does not mention the sources of the stories. But in respect of somc storis he specifies the sources by mentioning merely the names of works such as Rāmāyana (St.No.5, p.15) Padmacarita (St.No.15, p.82) Sukumāracarita (St.Nos.21-22, p.107) etc, Rarely he specifies a source by mentioning the name of the work as well as that of the author : Bhrajisnorārādhanā-Karnātatīkakathitakramenollekhamātram kathiteyam kathā iti (St.No.8 p.61), i.e, this story is adapted in short from the Kannada Commentary on the Arādhama of Bhrajisnu. Among those stories about the sources of which nothing is said by the author, the threads of some can be traced to works like the Padmacarita of Ravisena, the Mahāpurāņa of
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