Book Title: Treasury of Jain Tales
Author(s): V M Kulkarni
Publisher: Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre

View full book text
Previous | Next

Page 32
________________ xix ascetic ideal is shown to be superior to the Brāhmana ideal. This dialogue is met with also in the Mahabhārata, the Puranas and Jātaka (no.509). The story of Citta and Sambhūta (Chapter 13) belongs to the great cycle of legends about King Brahmadatta and is a common property of the Vedic Hindus, the Buddhists and the Jains. In chapter 22 we have the legend of Rathanemi (and Princess Rājimati and Aristanemi). It is connected with the Krsna legend and it effectively portrays the following events: the bridegroom's great compassion towards many animals which were to be slaughtered for his marriage-feast; his resolve to take the vow of an ascetic, Räjimati, the bride on learning of it resolves to become a nun. Once drenched in rain she takes refuge in a cave, undresses herself in order to dry her garments; Rathanemi, Aristanemi's elder brother had already taken refuge in the same cave. On seeing her naked beauty he is seized by passion and makes advances to her; she reproves him and enlightens him by her forceful speech. Rathanemi is thus steadied in dharma. (ii) Commentaries on Canonical Works Various learned ācāryas (teachers) have written commentaries on agama texts. These commentaries are varied in their character. They are variously named: Nijjuttis (niryuktis), cūrņis, laghubhasya, mahābhāsya, vrttis, ti kās, avacūrnis, pañjikā, di pikā, tippana (=tippana, tippanaka, tippaņi, tippani), vişamapadaparyäya, etc. Some of these names need to be explained: The niryuktis are 'concise metrical explanations of certain parts of the canon’; they "consist of very concise explanations in äryä verses and Jain Māhārāstri. They are probably memorial verses which served as an aid to the memory of the teachers in their oral interpretation of the sacred texts. At a later date, these niryuktis were extended to form exhaustive commentaries in Prakrit (bhásyas and cūrnis). These in their turn Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 ... 468