ANANTHANATHA PURANAM
1.
ಅನಂತನಾಥಪುರಾಣಂ (Ananthanatha Puranam)
2.
anantanAthapurANam
3.
The
Venerated History of Ananthanatha Teerthankara
4.
Janna
5.
1230
A.D.
6.
Halebeedu (
7.
Jaina
8.
Hoysala Ballala and
Narasimha Ballala
9.
Kavichakravarthy
10.
Poetry
11.
Kanda Padyas (Exclusively)
12.
Palm leaf and
Paper
13.
1930
14.
Srinivasachar D. and Rangaswamy
Iyengar
15.
16.
1.
Deveerappa H.and Padmanabha
Sharma M.C., 1972,
17.
The
popularity and the critical acclaim acheived by ‘Yashodharacharite’ has
marginalised ‘Ananthanathapurana’ to
a great extent. This work composed in the Champu style
is a biographical account of Ananthanatha or
Anantha Jina, the 14th
teerthankara. This contains fourteen chapters consisting of approximately
1400 poems. This is an expansion of about ninety poems in the Sanskrit work ‘Uttara Purana’ written by
Gunabhadracharya. Unlike other epics in Kannada based
on the lives of teerthankaras ‘Ananthanathapurana’
is confined to just two previous incarnations of Ananthanatha.
(Bhavavali) The lives of Suprabha,
Purushottama, Madhu Kaithabha and Padmaratha are
among various characters that appear in this delineation.‘Ananthanathapurana’ is a full fledged epic following
all the stipualtions that were laid down for that genre.
The eighteen mandatory descriptions (Ashtadasha Varnane) and the customary descriptions expected in a
Jaina classic such as the conception, birth and the
renunciation of the teerthankara make their appearance
with out fail. But all of them are very mechanical and shackled by religious considerations.
Even the descriptions of nature follow a set pattern.However
‘Ananthanathapurana’ contains a water
shed in the story of Chandashasana,
Sunanda and Vasushena. This of course is
a love story that was doomed to fail because of its illicit dimension.
Chandashasana’s genuine love for Sunanda
the queen of Vasushena has a magnetic appeal for the
modern reader. None of the main characters can be faulted for their decisions and
actions. However one is left with a sense of despair at the death of
Chandashasana and Sunanda. Vasushena’s
decision to take up sanyasa looks mild in
comparision. This is a love story narrated with lots of power and passion
even though it does not fit in to the general pattern of the whole epic. If one
remembers the fact that Janna unfolds another facet of these issues in ‘yashodharacharite’,
his major themes become explicit. ‘Ananthanathapurana’
is replete with Sanskrit vocabulary and compound words. This makes reading of the
text rather tough and un productive. Actually this work
has little to speak for itself but for the tragic tale of Chandashasana.
18.
References:
‘Kavyasameekshe’
T.N. Srikantaiah, 1947,
Kavyalaya,
19.
Translations:
Janna, Sharma T.R.S., Ancient Indian Literature volume 1, Ed. T.R.S. Sharma, Sahitya Academy, 2000
20.
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