A History of Sanskrit Literature c20.s2.1

c20.s2.1

The tale which is aimed directly at edification rather than amusement is specially richly presented in Jain literature; the Jains were very fond of stories, but they demanded a moral, and hence their writers were often led to spoil good stories such as the legends of Vikramāditya by seeking to make the participants in high adventure rather tedious exponents of Jainism. First place among these works must be assigned to the *Pariśiṣṭaparvan*,¹ a supplement to his epic *Triṣaṣṭiśalākāpuruṣacarita* by Hemacandra. In it he deals with the oldest teachers of the Jain faith, and the tales he relates are no longer mythic and epic, but distinctly of the ordinary variety of folk-tale. We hear, for instance, of the incest of brother and sister, children of a hetaira; it is characteristic that the situation is less appreciated on its tragic side than from the point of view of the relationships resulting, a point raised in more innocent circumstances in the last of the tales of the Vampire. The historical figure of Candragupta is made the subject of strange legends, one of the most curious making out that he died a pious Jain.² We are told³ of the monk who showed the constancy required for living with a hetaira during the whole rainy season without breaking his vow of chastity; another, who had shown courage enough to spend the same period in the company of a lion, essays the task but fails; piety however requires that the hetaira should convert him once more to the ways of virtue and herself become a nun.⁴