Jain Narrative Literature in Brajbhāṣā: Discussions from an Understudied Field
1
Wellcome Trust-Funded Independent Researcher, London WC2N 5DU, UK
2
SOAS, University of London, London WC1H 0XG, UK
Religions 2019, 10(4), 262; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10040262
Received: 15 March 2019
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Revised: 5 April 2019
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Accepted: 9 April 2019
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Published: 11 April 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Jainism Studies)
Jain narrative literature in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and Apabhraṃśa is rightly recognised as one of South Asia’s great cultural heritages and a vital source of material for insight into premodern Jain teachings, practices, and everyday life. However, Jain studies is yet to fully engage with the rich archive of Jain narrative literature in Brajbhāṣā, and a wealth of untapped manuscript material is waiting to be explored. In this article, I argue that by going beyond the too-broad moniker of “Jain Hindī literature” to recognise Jain narrative literature in Brajbhāṣā as a distinct category, we may better understand the Jains of early modern North India as partakers of a wider literary and religious culture. More particularly, by comparing the form and religious outlook of Rāmcand Bālak’s Sītācarit, a seventeenth-century Rāmāyaṇa treatment, with the works of the more well-known Banārsīdās, we see that even amongst the Jains who used Brajbhāṣā, considerable variety of outlooks and approaches existed.
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Keywords:
brajbhāṣā; Jainism; narrative; satī; bhakti; vernacular; Banārsīdās; Sītācarit
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MDPI and ACS Style
Plau, A. Jain Narrative Literature in Brajbhāṣā: Discussions from an Understudied Field. Religions 2019, 10, 262. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10040262
AMA Style
Plau A. Jain Narrative Literature in Brajbhāṣā: Discussions from an Understudied Field. Religions. 2019; 10(4):262. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10040262
Chicago/Turabian StylePlau, Adrian. 2019. "Jain Narrative Literature in Brajbhāṣā: Discussions from an Understudied Field" Religions 10, no. 4: 262. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10040262
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