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A CRITICAL STUDY OF PAUMACARIYAM
Geographical Horizon :-People were familiar with the geography of north and south India. Important countries, towns, rivers, and hills were known to them. It shows that there was a free passage between the north and the south. India was inhabited by various tribes and peoples, Aryan as well as non-Aryan. South India is said to have been chiefly dominated by the Vidyadharas, the Raksasas and the Vanaras who were the ancient tribes of India. In this respect the Paumacariyam has preserved valuable information about the authenticity of the the existence of these peoples in ancient times.
Literary Importance: The Paumacariyam is the first Jaina as well as Prakṛta Epic on Rama-story. It is composed in Mahārāṣṭrī Prakṛta. Vimalasari is the first Jaina poet who has presented to us a Puranic narrative in a charming popular style. Its language is easily comprehensible and the style is simple so the work is accessible even to an average reader. The linguistic material in the work is very valuable for the study of the development of the Middle-Indo-Aryan language. Varieties of metres have their own importance for the history of prosody.
Thus we find that the Paumacariyam besides its linguistic and literary importance, provides us with a lot of cultural and historical information comprising of social, political, economic and religious conditions of the people of its time and furnishes us with a good data about various geographical places, peoples and tribes of India. In this respect it is a mirror that reflects the society of its time. Hence the work occupies an important place in the ancient literature of India.
