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JAIN JOURNAL : Vol-XXXIV, No. 2 October 1999
works, they made necessary changes in the body of the epic-story, in the names of the epic-characters, and so on.
For instance, Ravisena of the 7th century A.D. named his poetical work as Padma-purana in which Rāma has been called Padma, Lava and Kuša are Lavana and Amkusa, the monkey-regiment of Rāma is the Vidyadhara-regiment of Padma. Ravisena painted the horrible picture of envy throughout his whole poem and made his work complete with the triumphant outcry of non-violence at the end.
Similarly, the Mahāpurāna of Jinasena and Gunabhadra of the 9th century A.D. followed the Ramayana-story, but instead of describing the kings of the solar-dynesty they described the life-story of the 63 Salākā puruşas (great personalities).
A list of available Purānas narrating the Rāma-story is given below:
Name of the Works
Author
Date of Composition
Ravişena Kavi Raidhū Jinadāsa
7th Century A.D. 1400-1470 A.D. 16th Century A.D.
Padma purana Padma purāna Padma purāna (otherwise called Ramadeva Purana) Padma purana Padma purāna (otherwise called Rama Purana) Padma purāna Padma purāna
Somasena Dharmakārti
1655 A.D. 1669 A.D.
Bhattāraka Candrakirti 1700 A.D. Śricandra
Unknown
A list of the available Carita-kävyas-(biographical puranas) narrating the Rāma-Story is given below: Name of the Works Author
Date of Composition Yasodhara-carita Kanakasena Vadirāja 950 A.D. Sitā-caritra Sricandra
Unknown Padma-Mahākävya Subhavardhana Gani Unknown Rāma-caritra Padmanātha
Unknown Padma-purāna-Pañjikā Prabhadra
Unknown Sītā-caritra Sānti-Suri
Unknown
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