Communal Relations - Conflicting Narratives

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<!--QuoteBegin-Bodhi+Apr 15 2007, 08:53 PM-->QUOTE(Bodhi @ Apr 15 2007, 08:53 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Also Jain literature is very rich in stories -  some in Prakrit, while some in Sanskrit.  One particular collection of fables with focus on morals and values for youth is: kuvalayamAlA (series of unfortunate events).
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Thank you!

That title kuvalayamAlA (A series of unfortunate events) is very interesting! Despite there being more jainas at present in India than buddhists, apparently it is easy to find jataka-katha stories (in childrens's books section including amar-chitra-katha) than say kuvalayamala stories. It appears that buddhistic studies were taken up with much more gusto by the europeans and their followers in India than Jaina studies. The result is a paucity of info in the popular domain on Jaina tradition. There are of course many scholarly texts available.

I have seen copies of kuvalayamAlA in the library but haven't borrowed it yet. Jaina literature is so vast, and not yet fully tapped, that I have been postponing getting into that corpus. My understanding is that there are many texts that possibly have mathematical/scientific value. Also most of the information about early Brahmi script comes from Jaina sources. Remembered a quote: "Namo bambhIye livaye" (In sanskrit: "namo brAhmyae lipyae", or salutations to the brahmi-script)