Critical Study Of Paumacariyam

SR No.: 022643
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: K R Chandra
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology and Ahimsa
Publication Year: 1970
Total Pages: 672
Language: English, Sanskrit
Classification: Book_English & Book_Devnagari
File Size: 18 MB

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A CRITICAL STUDY OF PAUMACARIYAN Rāma and sixteen to Lakṣmaṇa (UP, 68.47,48; MP, 70.13) after their returning from Mithila.
According to the Dasaratha Jātaka, Rāma marries his own sister, Sita.
SECTION III
EXILE OF RĀMA A. Dasaratha's decision to crown Rāma :
According to the PCV Dasaratha realises his old age and asks his ministers to enthrone Rāma so that he himself may become an ascetic (31.56). This realisation comes to him at the sight of the pitiable condition of his chamberlain Kañcuki (29.20-29) emaciated by old age. His desire to renounce the world is intensified after listening to the religious discourse and the account of his previous life from a monk (30.36 to 31.49). On this occasion all the four sons of Dasaratha are there.
In the VR also it is the old age which inspires Dasaratha to announce Rāma as his heir-apparent (2. 1. 36; 2.4.12), though the cause of its realisation is not given. Sumantra tells at one place that he and Dasaratha would have entered the life of anchorites after installing Rama on the throne (2.35.35). Here Daśaratha wants to enthrone Rama as soon as possible in the absence of Bharata who is away from home (2.4. 18-27). Dasaratha apprehends some intrigue' from Bharata, He is said to have seen some inauspicious dreams. Rama also while persuading Lakşmaņa to stay behind at home, expresses his suspicion in Bharata's faithfulness to his mother (2.31.14).
In the TR the realisation of old age comes through the observation of a grey hair growing near his ear (2. 2). There is no reference to any suspicion of Dasaratha in Bharata. On the contrary it is mentioned
1. This suspicion seems to be quite appropriate when one comes across Rāma
telling Bharata on the Citrakūta hill that their father while marrying Kaikeyi, had promised her father that the kingdom would be entrusted to her son (Purābhrātaḥ pitā naḥ sa mātaram te samudvahami/mātāmahe samasrausidrājyasul kamanuttamam 2. 107. 3). The Pratimā Nātaka also corroborates it: Bharata tells the Devakulika that Kaikeyi might have demanded kingdom for him remembering the sulkadoşam' (3.11), At another place (3.19) Kaikeyi admits it before Bharata (Jada sukkaluddha naņu pucchidayvaa). According to the Satyopākhyāna, Kaikaya married his daughter to Dasaratha on a promisc from the latter that the crown of the kingdom would pass to the son of Kaikeyi (Bulcke, p. 278).