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Prakrit and Apabhramśa Studies
were on their way to invading Lankā. They are defeated by Nala and Nila. Similarly Jainas found it unacceptable that Rāvaņa, even with all his power could overpower Indra and other Lokapālas like Yama, Varuņa etc. Gods of Jain mythology are infinitely superior in power to any human, be he even a Vidyādhara. So Indra, Yama, Varuņa etc. whom Rāvana is credited to have vanquished were according to the Jain tradition no more than just names of different Vidyādhara chiefs. A powerful Vidyādhara King created all his paraphernalia in imitation of the celestial Indra, because he claimed the status of terrestrial Indra. So he adopted the name Indra, called his elephant Airāvata, designated his various feudatories as Yama, Varuņa etc. and so on. It was this Vidyādhara king parading as Indra, and not the celestial one that was defeated along with his subordinates by Rāvaņa.
Most of the other traits too of Rāvaņa are changed. The Rāvana of VPc is not a ten-headed monster of hideous appearance. As a powerful Vidyādhara king he is endowed with most attractive physical and mental qualities. His designations Dasamukha, Daśagriva etc. are in fact to be taken metaphorically and not literally, and according to the Jain tradition there hangs a story about it. As a child Rāvana was precociously strong and adventurous. Still just a newly-born babe, he once rolled out of his bed and caught hold of a wonder necklace. The necklace, handed down in the family line since generations, was guarded by one thousand Nāgas and it could not be worn so far by any Vidyādhara king. As the mother put the wonder necklace around the child's neck, there were produced nine reflections of his face in the nine gems of the necklace. And hence he came to be called Dasamukha, etc.
And it is on these very grounds that Vimala criticizes in VPc. the orthodox version of the Rāma story. He declares it to be falsified and full of absurdities on the following grounds : How could Raksasas, who were pious Jainas descended from noble Vidyadhara families and who possessed enormous power through their mastery of Vidyās, be killed by mere monkeys ? Again it
