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The Prakrit and Apabhramsa Rāmāyaṇas
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Prakrit citations are concerned we are quite in the dark regarding the exact nature (whether a regular Rāmāyaṇa or otherwise) and character (whether Jain or non-Jain) of their source works. The citation from Kanhadatta (Sk. Krşņadatta), illustrating the mixture of Giti and Skandhaka metres, relates to the message delivered to Rāvaņa (either by Angada or by Hanumat) advising him to return Sitā before Rāma's arrows destory him (Svayambhūcchandas I, 103.3). The citation from Vadhamitta (Sk. Vțddhamitra), illustrating the Ugra variety of the Galitaka metre is considerably obscure, but there is no doubt about the fact that it contains an exhortation to Rāvaņa by somebody desiring him to negotiate peace with Rāma (Sva', I, 2-3-1). The third citation, from Nāgaha, illustrating the Toļaka metre (Svao, I, 16.1), describes Rāvana's army discharging velleys of arrows at the monkey hordes. We may speculate that of these, the name Krşņadatta possibly implies that he was a non-Jain. (3) Caturmukha's Rāmāyaṇa
Fortunately we are somewhat more informed regarding Svayambhūdeva's citations from an earlier Apabhraíśa Rāmāyaṇa by a poet named Caumuha (Sk. Caturmukha). From bits of information scattered in diverse sources, we can piece together the following account of Caturmukha and his works. He may have flourished in the eighth or seventh century. Acknowledged by the subsequent centuries as a major Apabharamsa poet, he had three extensive eipies to his credit. One of these was a Rāmāyaṇa, another a Bhārata and the third one was called Abdhimathana, which had obviously as its theme the Purāņic episode of the churning of the ocean by gods and demons. All the three epics were in the Sandhibandha form. The Sandhi bandha was the characteristic form of the Apabhraíśa epic. The poem was divided into Sandhis, each of which was subdivided into Kadavakas tylpically made up of eight rhyming couplets with a closing piece. These eipcs contained in the final verse of each section the nämānka or nāmamudră of the author. Bhoja informs us that in the case of Caturmukha's poems, the author's name was identical with the name of bis işta-devatā.
