Uttara Purana

Author(s): Gunbhadrasuri, Pannalal Jain
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

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pses of the whole universe and its ideological associations. No opportunity to introduce poetical descriptions, ethical sermons, moral exhortations, theoretical details about dreamns, town-planning, polity etc., religious dogmas and practices, polemical attacks and refutations, and technical information, is ever missed with the effect that the narratives get enriched by a variety of stuff which at once demonstrates the deep learning and width of hereditory scholarship the authors of this work possessed.
The MP is a magnificent traditional history so far as the great heroes of Sramanic culture are concerned. Rich details about the Kulakaras like Nābhi, about Tirthakaras like Vņşabha, about Cakravartins like Bharata and others are presented with deep interest. It is here that we get the tales about Rāma and Rāvaņa, about Kțşņa and Pāndavas, about Bāhubali, Brahmadatta, Jivamdhara, Vasu, Nārada and many other luminaries which are of immense significance for a student of comparative mythology.
In describing the military campaign of Bharata, the author introduces important geographical information, though conventional in many details. The descriptions of Kalpavřksas, numerals, three worlds, various mountains, philosophical schools, divisions of knowledge, renunciation, rituals, samskāras, penances, meditation, Samavasaraņa etc. have enriched the work with religious and cultural details of great importance. Some socio-cultural topics deserve careful study and interpretation. Apart from the code of layman's and ascetic's morality which is elaborated throughout the work, we find in this work many ideas on statecraft and worldly wisdom expressed in a striking manner.
While composing this MP, Jinasena and Guņabhadra have drawn a good deal of information from canonical tradition and post canonical texts like the Tiloyapannatti of Yativșsabha, as well as the Vägartha-samgraha of Kavi Parameșthi. Their performance proved so authoritative, magnificent and exhaustive that its prototypical predecessors were almost eclipsed. It may not be surprising, therefore, that works like that of Kaviparamesthi came to be neglected and in course of time lost beyond recovery.
This MP has served as a model, if not necessarily a direct and the only source for many subsequent authors like Puşpadanta, Hemacandra, Āsādhara, Cāmundarāja, and the author of Tamil Śrīpurāna, etc. who composed their works in Apabhramsa, Sanskrit, Kannada and Tamil. Besides, many Jaina authors are directly or indirectly indebted to this class of works for patterns of details and descriptions with which they enriched their poems on select themes centring round one or the other hero, a Tirthamkara, a Cakravartin, or any individual hero of antiquity like Bahubali, Pradyumna, Jivandhara etc.