________________
Pravrajya: The Itinerant Life
and coming out of the actual milieu of the śramanis, are most interesting and, indeed, are highly valuable documents. The authors are not seeking either renown or honours, they are not writing for a larger public. They are simply performing with fervour an act of devotion and desire to present to their contemporaries and to posterity examples to imitate. Through these lives, we know many true to life characteristics and events observed on the spot, which reveal not only the arduous life of the sadhvis and the incredible difficulties they encounter, but also the different circles in which they move, from that of the simple village in the arid desert to that of the princely family of a large city.
Kavyas: Poctic compositions
The sadhvis, especially those from Rājasthāna, have a vast repertoire of poetry. They embellish their pravacanas with passages from poems and songs that they know by heart. This natural faculty prompts certain ones of them to compose their own poems. Up till now these poetic compositions have scarcely been known at all outside the group where they originated; however, a few collections have now been published.79 These poems speak of the dharma and only the dharma, but, as their mode of expression comes from a poetic inspiration, they are able to touch the heart and to convince more easily than the dharma-granthas or in a different way.
Anuvādas: Translations
Translation is another intellectual activity of contemporary sadhvis, translation of the Agamas or doctrinal texts from Prakrit or Sanskrit into the vernaculars. This very specialised task, hitherto undertaken only by scholarly monks, is beginning to be of interest to a few able sādhvis. This is an important work, firstly for the sadhvis who can greatly profit from these translations and also for the śravakas and śrāvikās.80
79 Cf. e.g. Saragama of Sadhvi Kanakaprabhā; Jalati maśāla of Sādhvi Mañjulā.
80 This subject has been already introduced P 494 ff.
Jain Education International
555
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
