Universal Values of Prakrit Texts

Author(s): Prem Suman Jain
Publisher: Bahubali Prakrit Vidyapeeth and Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan

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is cultivated and cherished under these traditions. However, a holistic view of life has been a mark of our tradition. Compartmentalisation between the secular and non-secular, the sacred and profane, the classic and folk, the mundane and the transcendental reality has never existed in ancient India the way it exists now a days. With this holistic approach, we must study Prakrit literature in all its diversity and versatile nature. Despite my very limited knowledge of Prakrit sources, I find that there are numerous genre and forms of literature in Prakrit. Some of them are - (i) Inscriptional literature - The inscriptions of Asoka or Khāravela
not only are valuable records from the point of view of history, they also envisage the values that the society had cherished.
(ii)
Religious literature
(iii) Philosophical literature (iv) Strotra literature (v) Kathā literature : (vi) Muktaka or Subhāşita literature (vii) Prakrit Mahakavyas
Most of these areas have been covered in this seminar.
People's voices, the voices of protest reverberate through Prakrit literature. The importance of secular literature in Prakrit should also be equally emphasised, and there is need to study the vast mass of Prakrit poetry and Fiction to understand the ethos, the aspirations and struggles and the nature of ancient Indian society as well as the values that governed and guided that society. There is a vast mass of muktaka literature in Prakrit. Apart from the well known anthologies Gāhāsattasaī and Vajjālagga, there are thousands of Prakrit verses quoted in the Sanskrit texts of Alankāraśāstra.
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