Līlāvatīsāra (epitome of Līlāvatī) is a poem composed by

Jinaratna Jinaratna (Jina·ratna; Hindi: जिनरत्न) was a Jain scholar monk who composed ''Līlāvatīsāra.'' He completed his poem in the year 1285 CE in Jabaliputra, western India, (modern Jalore in Rajasthan). It is an epitome of a much ...

. Jina Ratna belonged to Khartara Gachchha of the Svetambara sect of

Jainism Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religions, 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 ...

. It tells the stories of the lives of a group of souls as they pass through a series of embodiments on their way to final liberation from the continual cycle of death and rebirth. The purpose of these stories, which are related to Queen Līlāvatī and her husband King Sinha by the teacher-monk Samarasena (Samara-sena), is to promote the ethic of

, which holds that strict adherence to a nonviolent way of life is the key to liberation from the troubles of the world. In the end, Queen Līlāvatī, King Sinha and the other leading characters attain perfect knowledge and liberation. As its title suggests, ''The Epitome of Līlāvatī'' is an epitome of a much larger work, Nivvāṇa-līlāvaī-kahā ''The Story of the Final Emancipation of Līlāvatī'', composed in 1036 by Jineshvara, also 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 ...

monk.

wrote his epitome at the request of those who wished to concentrate on its narrative. The primary purpose of Jain narrative literature was to edify lay people through amusement; consequently the stories are racy, and in some cases the moralising element is rather tenuous. The main feature of Jain narrative literature is its concern with past and future lives. There developed a genre of soul biography, the histories, over a succession of rebirths, of a group of characters who exemplified the vices of anger, pride, deceit, greed and delusion.

Critical edition of Līlāvatīsāra

''Jinaratna's Līlāvaī-Sāra: A Sanskrit Abridgement of Jineśvara Sūri's Prakrit Līlāvaī-Kahā'' edited by H.C. Bhayani, Ahmedabad, 1983
L.D. Institute of Indology
96.

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'' by R.C.C. Fynes under the title of ''The Epitome of Queen Lilávati'' (2005, second volume 2006).

Critical edition of Līlāvatīsāra

English translations

References

See also