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CONCLUSION
619
inflated Valmiki Rāmāyaṇa and other Brahmanical works based on it had become so much popular that it would not have been possible for anyone to distinguish between the original and the inflated Rama-story. It cannot be presumed that he would have been conversant with some version of the Adi Rāmāyaṇa at so late a date. Therefore, the only plausible possibility is that he inherited the Rāma-story from some other tradition. The predecessors and specially the preceptors of Vimalasūri might have carefully preserved and helped in disseminating that tradition. Thus he might have received a lot of information about the story from the oral tradition of the line of his preceptors as he mentions in his work. And that tradition was based on the 'nāmāvli sūtras' given in the Samaväyānga, Sthānā nga and the Tiloyapannatti. The Sthānanga and Samavāyānga date some centuries prior to the Christian era and approximately to the time of the composition of the Adi Rāmāyana.
The divine elements and others giving Brahmanical colouring to the Rāma story were introduced later by the rhapsodists and interpolators of Rāma's incarnation, his meeting with various Brāhmaṇa Rşis, his promise to annihilate the Rákşasas etc, are later creations. In the original story Rāma was a man and man only, an ideal Ksatriya. As the Valmīki Rāmāyana was Brahmanised, similarly Vimalasūri Jainised the Rāma story for the propagation of Jainism.
Some of the elements of PCV's Rāmakathā have their traditional backing in other early works. They are Lakşmaņa's seniority to Bharata; Defeating of the Anāryas by Rāma; Absence of demanding of exile of Rāma by Kaikeyi; Filial relationship between the Raksasas and the Vanaras and the Doubtful authenticity of the construction of the bridge across the sea.
Thus we find that in certain respects the Rāma-kathā of Paumacariyam has originality having its basic foundation on the Jaina or Popular tradition and in certain respects it is backed by some tradition other than that of Valmiki Rāmāyana. Besides, in its details it has been greatly influenced by the Vālmīki Rāmāyana whose Rāma-story was so much popular that Vimalasūri could not escape its impact on his work.
In the planning of his work Vimalasūri, at certain places, is influenced by the Rāmopākhyāna of Mahābhārata also, specially in placing Rāvanacarita in the beginning of the story.
Now it can be said that his critical reference to some portions of popular Rāmāyaṇa, alleged by him as unbelievable and inconsistent, was not merely for the sake of criticism and for recasting the story into
