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DECEMBER, 1912.) TEE RAMACHARITAM ANASA AND THE RAMAYANA
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may be the task of recognizing them, owing to the great change they have undergone in being transferred to a language so different from the Sanskrit and to a style so different from the rich style of the epic, yet by diligent inquiries they can still be brought to light; and are important in so far as they supply us with the surest evidence that Talast Dasa did actually and directly draw ou the Sanskrit Ramayana.
Before entering on the exhibition and illustration of the most striking of these Valmikian reminiscences still to be found in the Ramacharitamanasa, and thereby adducing the proofs of what I have been affirming up to now, I deem it necessary to solve the question as to which recension of the Ramayana was used by Tulasi Dasa.
A careful analysis of the Hindi poem has enabled me to conclude that Tulasi Dasa did not always follow the same recension of the Sanskrit poem, but that, though he usually followed B, he knew and largely followed also C (and may be even A).
Tulasi Daga's inconsistency as regards a model recension becomes apparent at a first glance, if We only look at the limits he has assigned to the single books. After the pattern of the Rdmdyana, the Ramacharitamanasa, too, is divided into seven kandas, but the lines of the partition within the Hindi poem and within each of the three recensions of the Sanskrit poem do not coincide with each other. Tulasi Dása, however, does not follow an independent course generally, but conforms himself either to the one or to the other of the recensions, as can be seen from the following synopsis :
Balakanda: Ends in the R. C.M. as in C, A, and in the main as in B also, for the substanco of sarga: 79-80, which B adds to the Balakanda thereby differing from C, A, has not been iatroduced by Tulast Dåsa into his poem.
Ayodhyakanda: Ends in the R. C. M. as in B, A ; whilst C adds to it five other sargas. Aranyakdnda: Ends in the R. C. M. as in B, A ; whilst C falls short of a sarga,
Kishkindhalanda: Ends in the R. C. M. 43 in C; A adds to it one more sarga, whilst B enda the kanda four sargas before C.
Surdarakanda: Ends in the R. C. M. a sarga before than in B; A concords with B bat adds two sargas which fail in B, C; C ends the kinda a score of sargas before.
Lankakanda: Ends in the R. C. M. as the Yuddhakanda in A, B, C. Uttarakanda: Differs entirely in the R. C. M.
By comparing single passages in the Ramacharitamanasa with their corresponding ones in the Ramdyana, and chiefly by examining the particulars, exclusive either of B or of O, that have been accepted by Tulasi Dasa, I have been able to conclude with certainty that Talasi Dasa follows and B alternately, and to fix the limits and recurrence of these alternations as follows:
(1) Tulasi Dasa follows from the beginning of Rama's life (C, I, 18) till Râma's arrival at the Chitrakata (C, II, 56);
(2) Tulasi Dasa follows B from Sumantra's return to Ayodhya (B, (C), II, 57) till tbo end of the Aranyakanda and may be even further on for a good part of the Kishkindhakanda ;
(3) Tulasi Dasa follows C front the beginning of the Sundarakanda till Råma's ascension on the Suvela after bridging the Ocean (C, VI, 40);
(4) Tulasf Dass follows B from the beginning of the combats with the rakshasas (B, VI, 17 EO, VI, 42) down to the end of the Yuddhakanda.
Each of the above items represents a conclusion from a se.ies of evidence drawn from examining all passages which are found in only one of the two recensions of the Ramd yana (B, C,) and either bave no correspondence at all with the other or differ greatly from it. All this evidence w invariably unilateral within each of the four partitions, i. e., within the limits of the first and
