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CHAPTER XVI
JAINA RELIGIOUS AND MORAL STORIES A considerable number of independent stories occurs in Yasastilaka, Books VI and VII, their purpose being to illustrate diverse tenets of Jaina religion and ethics. The first series in Book VI is meant to illustrate the different aspects of Samyaktva or Right faith, while the second series in Book VII illustrates two of the Malagunas and the five Anupratas. The stories, on the whole, belong to the sphere of religion and folklore, and form part of the body of Jaina narrative tradition, generally known as Kathānaka literature. Jacobi says: The rise of the Kathānaka literature............may be placed about the end of the first century A. D. Its end is indicated by the time of Haribhadra who lived about 750 A.D. For Haribhadra wrote Tikas on the Avasyaka and other Sūtras and Niryuktis: and the Tikās form the fourth and last layer of the Kathānaka literature.' Generally speaking, the stories incorporated by Somadeva in his work must be considered much earlier than the tenth century, and, as we shall see, several of them are actually found or referred to in earlier texts. Somudeva has thus no originality in respect of these stories, and his turgid prose is hardly suited to the treatment of such simple tales. His great merit is in bringing together so many ancient stories and elaborately narrating them by way of illustrating various teachings of the Jaina religion. He has, in fact, preserved for us a highly interesting collection of stories, which, from the standpoint of religion and folklore, is hardly less important than the story of Yasodhara. Their literary interest is enhanced by the fact that they form & sort of independent story-book within the framework of the romance.
Some of the stories recorded by Somadeva are based on Brahmanical mythology, and may be called Jaina versions of Hindu tales. The story of the sage Vişņu is nothing but a Jaina adaptation of the story of the Dwarf Incarnation of Vişņu. Jamadagni and Reņukā are well-known in Brahmanical mythology; the story of Vasu, as we shall see, is originally a Brahmanical legend. Perhaps the most notable of the stories preserved in Yasastilaka iş an early legend, probably the earliest known, concerning the foundation of the once famous Jaina Stupa of Mathurā. Most of the stories illustrating the Anuyratas may be described as folktales. All the stories recorded in Books VI and VII are summarized below in the order in which they occur in Somadeva's work.
1 Jacobi: Introduction to Sthavirávalācarita ur Parisistaparvan, p, vii. 2 See below (VII) and Chap. XVII.
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