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38
A CRITICAL STUDY OF PAUMACARIYAN
demanded two things. The Rāmopākhyāna' agrees with it. Dasaratha Jataka and the Dasaratha Kathānam mention one boon. Seri-Rāma and the Hikāyata-Mahārāja-Ravaņa agree with it
The The
Like the VH, the Assamese Rāmāyana of Madhavakandali (ch. 16 and Seri-Rāma (some other version)? mention that two boons are granted to Kaikeys on two different occasions. Telugu Bhaskara Rāmāyaṇa (13th-14th cent. A. D.) and Varadarāju Rāmāyana (1650 A. D.) also mention two boons.3
C. Birth of Rāma and his brothers :
In the Paumacarijań, there is no association of any divinity with the birth of the sons of Dasaratha. They are born in the natural way and Daśaratha does not perform any religious rites for their birth. Rāma is the eighth Baladeva (20.2;21.1). He is one of the three members of the eighth trinity of the 'sixty-three great persons' of the Jaina faith (20). The other two i, e. Vasudeva and Prativasudeva of the eighth trinity are Laksmana and Rāvana (Dahamuha) respectively.
According to the VR, when Dasaratha does not have any son, he performs 'aśvamedha' (horse-sacrifice) and the 'putreștiyajña' (1.1415). On that occasion at the request of various gods to Brahman, Vişnu promises to take birth in form of the sons of Dasaratha for bringing an end of the atrocities of Rāvana, the Rākṣasa king. Thus Rāma and his brothers are born as the incarnations of Vişņu (1.18. 11-14).
The TR mentions only the 'putrakāma subha yajna' (1.189) and not the 'aśvamedha'.
The Mahābhārata (3.276.5) refers to the incarnation of Vişnu, but does not mention the performing of any sacrifice by Dasaratha. Similarly the Vişnu (4.87), Bhāgavata (9.102), Vāyu (4.4.87), Kūrma (1.21.18) and the Garuda Purānas (143.4) do not have reference to any sacrifice.
1. Satyapratijña yanme tvaṁ kāmamekan niśțstavanj Upakurusva tadrājamsta
smānmueyasya sankațāt;/ Varam dadani te hantā tad gshana yadicchasi (MB, 3.277.21-22). Abhişecanikaṁ yatte Rāmärthamupakalpitam/ Bharatastadavā.
pnotu vanam gacchatu Rāghavaḥ. MB, 3.277.26. 2. Bulcke, 2, p. 402. 3. Rāmāyana Samiksā, Venkateswara University, Tirupati, (1967), pp. 32, 34, 42.