A History of Sanskrit Literature c18.s5.5

c18.s5.5

The *textus simplicior* was composed somewhere in western India by a Jain at an uncertain date, but doubtless before Pūrṇabhadra (1199) and after Māgha and Rudra Bhaṭṭa,³ from whom verses are taken, perhaps, therefore, *c.* 1100. It is substantially altered from the original. The five books are made more approximately equal; several stories from iii are placed in iv, to which new matter is also added. A continuation is appended to Book v, the framework of which is altered by making the story of the barber who killed the monks the main story in which the tale of the ichneumon is inserted. The frameworks of Books iii and iv are also rehandled, and new tales added also to Books i–iii. Of the quite original matter seven tales are Märchen, one a witty anecdote, two intrigues, and one a story of a fool. The most remarkable addition is the tale (i. 5) of Viṣṇu and the weaver; the latter gains access to a princess by pretending to be Viṣṇu and mounting a wooden Garuḍa, and, when the fraud is being disclosed through the folly of the king who, proud of his divine connexion, wars unsuccessfully on his neighbours and is beleaguered in his city, Viṣṇu, to save his reputation, has to come down and save the city. This story itself would hardly prove Jain origin, but there is better evidence in the mention of Jain monks in lieu of Brahmin ascetics and the occurrence of Jain terms like *kṣapaṇaka*, *digambara*, *nagnaka*, *vyantara*, a species of spirit, and *dharmadeçanā*, teaching of the law. A very large number of new stanzas is found, while perhaps of the original stanzas not more than one-third was retained. The original of the text appears to have been a text akin to the *Tantrākhyāyika*; like that text the Simplicior contains the unoriginal tales of the blue jackal, the jackal outwitting camel and lion, and the weaver Somilaka.