Voix et échos du roman-poème en prakrit

The influence of Uddyotana's Kuvalayamala composed in 779 is noticeable in a series of ten long narrative works composed between the 8th and 12th centuries : Haribhadra's Samaraiccakaha (8th c.), Gunapala's Jambucaria (9th c.), Shilanka's Cauppannamahapurisacaria (868), Vijayasimha's Bhuvanasumdari (10-11th c.), Gunacandra's Mahaviracaria (1082), Vardhamana's Manorama (1082), Devacandra's Samtinahacaria (1104), Vardhamana's Jugaijinimdacaria (1104), Shantisuri's Puhaicamdacaria (1105) and Devabhadra's Pasanahacaria (1112). They constitute a particular genre called romance-poem because of the distinctive features they have in common: in addition to devices typical of the kavya style in Prakrit and, for most of them, the alternation between prose and verse, they contain didactic passages borrowed from worldly knowledge and religious discourses expounding the principles of the Jaina faith. However, with the exception of Haribhadra's Samaraiccakaha and Uddyotana's Kuvalayamala, the other nine romance-poems in the corpus have remained un known in literary histories as well as in scholarly works partly because of their language, and partly because of their editions that were restricted to a narrow readership. The first aim of this book is therefore to restore these works to their rightful place in Indian culture and to assess their role in Jaina literature. The other aim is to analyse how the romance-poems composed at a pivotal period that is still poorly understood due to a lack of documentation can shed light on the history of medieval Jain monasticism.