Yasastilaka and Indian Culture

Author(s): Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur

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YAŠASTILAKA AND INDIAN CULTURE
rāya (wrote in prose Cāmundarāya-purāņa), Ranna (wrote Ajitapurāna and Gadāyuddha), and Nāgavarma (author of the Kanarese version of Bāņa's Kādambari); philosophical writers like Nemicandra Siddhāntacakravartin ( wrote in Prākrit Gõmmatasära, Dravyasamgraha and other works) and Prabhācandra (author of Nyāyakumudacandra and Prameyakamalamārtanda'); and poets and scholars like Vādirāja (wrote Pārsvanāthacarita, Kakutsthacarita and Yasodharacarita), Vādibhasimha (wrote Gadyacintamani and Ksatracūdāmani), Dhanapāla (author of Tilakamañjari), Amitagati (author of Subhāşitaratnasarndoha, Dharmaparikşā and other works ), Asaga (author of Vardhamānacarita), Mahāsena (author of Pradyumnacarita), Viranandin (author of Candraprabhacarita), and perhaps Kanakāmara (wrote Karakandacariu in Apabhramsa); and other writers like the grammarian Dayāpāla (author of Rūpasiddhi and contemporary of Vädirāja ).
While Somadeva made substantial contributions to Jaina religious literature, his literary importance and achievement go beyond its narrow limits; and the value of his work can be assessed in relation to Sanskrit literature as a whole. He is one of the most versatile talents in the history of Indian literature, and his masterpiece Yasastilaka reveals the manifold. aspects of his genius. He is a master of prose and verse, a profound scholar with a well-stocked memory, an authority on Jaina dogma, and a critic of contemporary philosophical systems. He is a close student of the art of government, and in this respect his Yasastilaka and Nitiväkyārta supplement each other. He is a redactor of ancient folktales and religious stories, and at times shows himself an adept in dramatic dialogue. Last but not least, he is a keen observer of men and manners. The position of Somadeva is, indeed, unique in Sanskrit literature.
Despite the fact that Somadeva's reputation rests on a prose romance and a treatise on polity, he was primarily a Jaina theologian; and
rly half of Yasastilaka and presumably the lost works are devoted to the defence and exposition of the tenets of the Jaina faith. He acknowledges the fact himself and would have us believe that his poetry was a byproduct of his philosophical studies. He tells us in one of the opening verses of Yasastilaka that just as a cow yields milk by eating grass, similarly his intellect produced the beautiful utterances of his poetical composition by feeding on the dry logical studies, to which he had devoted himself since his childhood. Tarka or philosophical argumentation was Somadeva's true vocation, and his honorific titles Tärkikacakravartin and Vadībhapañcānana point to the fact that he, like many intellectuals of his age, spent a good
1 See Introduction (in Hindi) to Nyāyakumudacandra, p. 121, Bombay 1938. 2 आजन्मसमभ्यस्ताच्छष्कासर्कात्तृणादिव ममास्याः । मतिसरमेरभवदिदं सूक्तिपयः सुकृतिना पुण्यैः।।.