Jinaratna (Jina·ratna;
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
: जिनरत्न) was a
Jain
Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle being ...
scholar monk who composed ''
Līlāvatīsāra
Līlāvatīsāra (epitome of Līlāvatī) is a poem composed by Jinaratna. Jina Ratna belonged to Khartara Gachchha of the Svetambara sect of Jainism. It tells the stories of the lives of a group of souls as they pass through a series of embo ...
.'' He completed his poem in the year 1285 CE in Jabaliputra, western India, (modern
Jalore
Jalore () (ISO 15919 : ''Jālora'' ), also known as ''Granite City'', is a city in the western Indian state of Rajasthan. It is the administrative headquarters of Jalore District.
It has a river known as Jawai Nadi. Jalore lies to south of Su ...
in
Rajasthan
Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...
). It is an epitome of a much larger work called ''
'' composed in Jain
Maharashtri
Maharashtri or Maharashtri Prakrit ('), is a Prakrit language of ancient as well as medieval India and the ancestor of Marathi and Konkani.
Maharashtri Prakrit was commonly spoken until 875 CEV.Rajwade, ''Maharashtrache prachin rajyakarte'' , a Prakrit language, in 1036 by
Jineshvara, also a Jain monk.
What little is known about Jinaratna, he states himself in the colophon he placed at the end of his poem, in which he gives the lineage of the succession of monastic teachers and pupils from
Vardhamana
Mahavira (Sanskrit: महावीर) also known as Vardhaman, was the 24th ''tirthankara'' (supreme preacher) of Jainism. He was the spiritual successor of the 23rd ''tirthankara'' Parshvanatha. Mahavira was born in the early part of the 6t ...
, the teacher of Jineshvara who was the author of ''
,'' to another Jineshvara who was Jinaratna's own teacher.
Jinaratna studied literature, logic and the canonical texts of the
White-Clad Jains, with Jineshvara and other monks. In his colophon he acknowledges the help he received from others in the preparation and correction of the text of ''
Līlāvatīsāra
Līlāvatīsāra (epitome of Līlāvatī) is a poem composed by Jinaratna. Jina Ratna belonged to Khartara Gachchha of the Svetambara sect of Jainism. It tells the stories of the lives of a group of souls as they pass through a series of embo ...
.''
Jinaratna in his introductory verses to ''
Līlāvatīsāra
Līlāvatīsāra (epitome of Līlāvatī) is a poem composed by Jinaratna. Jina Ratna belonged to Khartara Gachchha of the Svetambara sect of Jainism. It tells the stories of the lives of a group of souls as they pass through a series of embo ...
'' describes how his interest in Jineshvara's poem was stimulated by his own teacher. Jinaratna states that he began to write his epitome at the request of those who wished to concentrate on its narrative alone.
By writing in
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
, the pan-Indian language of learned discourse, Jinaratna gave ''
Līlāvatīsāra
Līlāvatīsāra (epitome of Līlāvatī) is a poem composed by Jinaratna. Jina Ratna belonged to Khartara Gachchha of the Svetambara sect of Jainism. It tells the stories of the lives of a group of souls as they pass through a series of embo ...
'' a far wider readership than was possible for Jineshvara's ''
,'' since it was written in the Prakrit Jain Maharashtri, a language with a more restricted currency.
Jinaratna displays his mastery of Sanskrit poetics by interspersing complex lyric metres throughout his poem. Not only does Jinaratna employ rare works and unusual grammatical forms drawn from the Sanskrit lexicons and grammars, but he also incorporates into his poem words taken from contemporary spoken vernaculars. Jinaratna's language in the narrative portions of the poem is fast moving and direct, but it is far more ornate in his descriptions of cities, mountains, desert wilderness, battles, festivals, and other topics with which a Sanskrit epic should be embellished.
English translations
The
Clay Sanskrit Library
The Clay Sanskrit Library is a series of books published by New York University Press and the JJC Foundation. Each work features the text in its original language (transliterated Sanskrit) on the left-hand page, with its English translation on the ...
has published a translation of ''
Līlāvatīsāra
Līlāvatīsāra (epitome of Līlāvatī) is a poem composed by Jinaratna. Jina Ratna belonged to Khartara Gachchha of the Svetambara sect of Jainism. It tells the stories of the lives of a group of souls as they pass through a series of embo ...
'' by R.C.C. Fynes under the title of ''The Epitome of Queen Lilávati'' (two volumes).
See also
*
Līlāvatīsāra
Līlāvatīsāra (epitome of Līlāvatī) is a poem composed by Jinaratna. Jina Ratna belonged to Khartara Gachchha of the Svetambara sect of Jainism. It tells the stories of the lives of a group of souls as they pass through a series of embo ...
(The Epitome of Lilavati)
*
Nivvāṇalīlāvaīkahā
The ''Nivvāṇalīlāvaīkahā'' (Nivvāṇa-līlāvaī-kahā) 'Story of the Final Emancipation of Līlāvatī' composed in 1036 by Jineshvara, a Jain monk. The work was composed in Jain Maharashtri, a Prakrit language. Jineshvara was a reformi ...
References
External links
Clay Sanskrit Library(official page)
Sanskrit poets
Indian Jain monks
13th-century Indian Jain poets
13th-century Jain monks
13th-century Indian monks
Poets from Rajasthan
{{india-writer-stub