2025, Vol. 7, Issue 4, Part C

Recent scholars have analysed the historical materials from western India. However, medieval Digambara literature from Deccan and South India has relatively been neglected. This paper attempts to examine texts between late 17th to early 19th centuries. The paper investigates what kind of histories were written by the Jain authors. Moreover, what do these texts reflect as far as conception of time and space is concerned? How these texts led to the development of regional languages in pre-modern Deccan? The paper will apply the concepts of scholars like Hayden White and Paul Ricoeur in order to examine the methods of recording the past by the Jain authors in Medieval Deccan. Moreover, applying the theories of social strife, propounded by the Annale’s school, the paper studies the depiction of certain religious traditions (in this case the Lingayats) as well as caste groups to study the narrative strategies employed by the Jain authors as well as to examine the nature of social tensions within the Jain community as well as their relation with other socio-religious groups, as far as Medieval Deccan is concerned.

This paper is based on three sources, both in Marathi and Kannada, produced between late 17th century to early 19th century ce. The first text is Kalika-Purana of Bhattaraka Devendrakirti. The second text is Sethi-Mahatmya, composed by Raghava, in the 18th century ce. The third historical text is Devachandra’s ‘Rajavali Katha’. The text was written between late 18th and early 19th century ce.

The paper is divided into the following sections

•Post-modern views of history-writing: Haiden White and its application to South Indian context.

•Socio historical narrative among the Jains of Medieval Deccan: Case of Kalika-Purana.

•Example of Medieval Jain Marathi poetry: The Sethi-Mahatmya of Raghu or Raghava.

•History of Mysore in the late 18th century: Devachandra’s Rajavali Katha.

•Some observations on the nature of Medieval society and state as reflected in these texts.

•Concluding remarks.