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CONTRIBUTIONS TO LITERATURE, ETC.
course of centuries. But the queer incongruity of the attempt to reconcile the concupiscence of Ravana with the artificially created Jaina atmosphere is clearly revealed in the Pampa Rāmāyaṇa by Nagacandra which is another Jaina version of the epic in Kannada (c. 1105 A.D.)54
On hearing of the complete recovery of Laxmaṇa the ministers of Rävaṇa advised him that prudence was the better part of valour, and told him that the two brothers (Rāma and Laxmana) would be more than a match for Rāvana. But the haughty prince with vanity equal to his evil intentions declared:
"Shall I, who made e'en Svarga's lord Before my feet to fall,
Now meekly yield me,-overawed By this mere princeling small? Nay, better 'twere, if so must be, My life be from me reft.
I still could boast, what most I prize, A warrior's honour left (!). Nathless, to make my victory sure,
I'll have recourse to magic lore. There is a spell, the śāstras tell,
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which multiplies the form. If this rare power I may attain, I'll seem to haunt the battle-plain.
My 'wildered enemies shall see, Before, behind, to left, to right, Phantasmal Rāvaṇa crowd to fight,
Whom darts shall strike in vain. Its name is baḥu-rūpiņi, "Tis won by stern austerity"
(worthy of a nobler cause).
That nothing might impede him in the acquiring of the magic power, Rāvana issued orders that throughout Lanka and its
64 Cf. Bice (E. P.), op. cit., pp. 34-6,
77
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