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76 JAINISM AND KARNĀTAKA CULTURE great purāņas written by the Jainas in obvious imitation of the Brāhmanical works of the same class. The earliest complete Jaina version in Sanskrit of the Rāmāyaṇa (or the Rama legend ) is said to be the Padmapurāņa by Ravisênācārya. Mr. Hirālāl observes that all later writers on the subject based their accounts on this Padmapurāna. The incidents in it are placed at the time of Néminātha, their sixteenth Tirthankara. 614 Rāma as well as Rävaņa are both claimed to be Jaina. Unlike Vālmiki's version, Seeta is here represented as being born in the human womb of the queen of Videha. Dasaratha did not die of sorrow, but retired into the forest to lead the life of an ascetic. Vāli, Sugriva, Hanuman and the hosts of monkeys were but powerful rulers of the forest regions. Instead of Rāma's killing Vāli, the latter is made to renounce his kingdom in order to do penance like Daśaratha. Laxmaņa, instead of reviving from his trance by means of the miraculous sanjivini, does so owing to the charming presence of a virtuous lady named Višalyā, whom he ultimately marries. These and other such details mark this Jaina version of the Rāmāyana.5%
The theme was taken up by many another Jaina poet, and Jinadasa in his Rāmacarita writes :
श्रीमद्रामचरित्रमुत्तममिदं नानाकथापूरितम् । पापघ्वांतविनाशनकतरण कारुण्यवल्लीवनम् । भव्यश्रेणिमनःप्रमोदसदनं भकयानघं कीर्तितम् । नानासत्पुरुषालिवीततं पुण्यं शुभं पावनम् ॥ १८ ॥ श्रीवर्धमानेन जिनेवरेण त्रैलोक्यवन्येन यदुक्तमादौ । ततः परं गौतमसंक्षकेन गणेश्वरेण प्रथितं जनानां ॥ १८१ ॥ ततः क्रमच्छीरविषेणनानाऽचायण जैनागमकोविदेन ।
सत्काध्यकलासदनन पृळ्यां नातं प्रसिदि चरितं रघोश्च ॥१८२॥ So we see that Ravisena got the tradition from Mahävira himself, handed down through the whole line of teachers in the
6la Prof. A. N. Upadhya Corrects me here as Maaisu vrata, the 20th
Tirthaskara, 52 Cf. Ibid. p. xxi. 53 Sʻri, Ailak Pannālal Digambara Jaina Saraswati Bhavana, Saoond
Annual Report, p. 80,
