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अनुसन्धान ४७
introductory portions of Paumacariya reveal quite openly the purpose of writing the story. The cause of the Jainification is explained as follows
अलियं ति सव्वमेयं, भांति जं कुकइणो मूढा ( Paum Ca. 3. 15 ) and
अलियं पि सव्वमेयं, उववत्तिविरुद्धपच्चयगुणेहिं ।
न सद्दहंति पुरिसा, हवंति जे पंडिया लोए ॥ ( Paum Ca. 2.117)
061
It means, 'All this appears to me to be lies, contrary to reasoning and not worthy of belief by wise men'. It is quite clear by this remark that he has deliberately rejected the Brahmanic version of the same story.
Not only Vimalasūri but all Jaina authors have the same reason to refute the accounts of Rāma and Rāvaṇa that they have heard from the Kuśāstra-vadins i.e. expounders of false scriptures. According to them, Lord Mahavira had narrated the story to Gautama Gaṇadhara. They got the story through the tradition of their teachers. If this claim is true then one expects basic minimum similarities in all Jaina versions. The similarities are already noted beforehand. Here some of the striking differences in major Jain versions are taken into account. (1) Dasaratha and his sons :
According to Paumacariya, Dasaratha was a king of Sāketa or Ayodhya. He has four sons, Padma from Aparajitā, Lakṣmaṇa from Sumitra and Bharata - Strughna from Kaikeyi.22 According to Uttarapurāṇa, at first, Dasaratha was ruling at Varanasi. Rāma or Balabhadra was born in Vārāṇasi. Rāma's mother was Subālā. Afterwards Dasaratha transferred his capital to Ayodhyā. One of his queen gave birth to Lakṣmaṇa and the other to Śatrughna.23 Triṣastismṛtiśāstra mentions four queens and four sons of Dasaratha.24 In Dasaratha Jātaka, Dasaratha was ruling at Vārāṇasi. He has 16,000 queens. His chief queen gave birth to Rāma-paṇḍita, Lakṣmaṇa-kumāra and Sitā-devi.25 There is no mention of Bharata
Satrughna.
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