Jain Journal 1968 10

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 25

PAUMACARIU
SVAYAMBHUDEVA
Of all the stories, Rama story is most popular in India. Hence we get a vast literature based on the life and exploits of Rama.
Of the Rama story, Valmiki's Rāmāyana is undoubtedly the earliest. He is acknowledged as the first poet (adi-kavi) of Sanskrit literature. Then this story was incorporated with little or no change in almost all the Purāņas like Vāyu, Agni, etc. Sometimes different sects gave their own colouring to the main story and we get books like Yoga-Vāśiştha, Adbhut-Rāmāyana, Ananda-Rāmāyana, etc. Later classical poets and dramatists like Kalidasa and Bhavabhuti, also have drawn from the story of Rāmāyana and we get finest literary creations like Raghuvamsam and Uttara-Rāmacaritam. Rama story has been rendered in almost all the modern Indian languages and each region has its own poet. Tulsidasa's Rāmacaritamānasa is most popular in northern India. Rama story has travelled even beyond this land to Ceylon, Tibet, Khotan, Indonesia, Indochina, Thailand and Burma.
For this popularity of the story, non-Brahmin cultures like the Buddhist and the Jaina have also adopted this story and have reconstructed it