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A CRITICAL STUDY OF PAUMACARIYA
In both the works the Rāvana-carita, as described in the Uttarakanda of the VR and the PCV, is lacking. It is merely at its preliminary state. Lava-Kuśa-Kānda is totally absent as in the Rāmopākhyāna. It is held by the scholars that even Ādi Rāmāyāra did not contain the whole of Uttarakāņla which is said to have originated in the second century A. D. (See Bulcke, p. 35 ).
The Samavāyānga and the Tiloyapannatti give the names of Rama, Rāvana, Lakşmaņa etc, but these works or any other cononical work do not refer to Lava and Kuša.
It indicates that the Uttarakānda was not known to the earlier Jaina tradition on which the VH and the UP are based. It should have gradually entered ihe Jaina tradition as was the case with the Brahmanical tradition or the Valmihi Rāmāyana.
3. Nucleus of Rāma-Story of the Jaina Traditions:
Now we shall trace out the salient features of the Rama-story which are common to all the three stories of the Jaina tradition. They can be mentioned as follows:
(i) Dasaratha had three wives and four sons. Rāma of the first, Lakşmapa of the second and Bharata, satrughna of the third queen. (ii) Ráma married Sita. (iii) Rāvana the Lord of Laukā deceitfully kindnapped Sītā. (iv) Sugrīva along with Hanumān sought help from Rāma in recovering his lost position. Rāma helped him by killing the miscreant. (v) Hanumān was sent to Lanká to bring the news of Sita. (vi) Vibhişaņa, brother of Rāvana joined hands with Rāma. (viii) Ravana was duly attacked and was killed by Lakşmana. (ix) Rāma, Laksmana and Sitā returned home and conquered half of the Bhāratavarşa. (x) The Vidyadharas, Vānaras and the Rākşasas were human races. (xi) Rāma, Lakşmaņa and Rāvana formed the eighth trio of Baladeva, Vāsudeva and Prativasudeva respectively. - One is likely to think that when the Jainas had their own tradition of the Rāma-story, why variations are found in the Rāma. story of Paumacariyaṁ, Vasudevahindi and Uttarapurāna ? The plausible answer to this question is that the story and that also with its oral tradition, is bound to undergo changes with different authors, belonging to different places and different periods.
This is the case not only with the Rāma-story. Even in the biographies of Tiratharkaras and other eminent personages of the Jaina tradition (See Story Nos. 10, 11 and 15 particularly), we find certain differences (See Supra, Ch. 4). These biographies are based on the 'series of names' given in the canonical works. The details remained
