Narrative Tale in Jain Literature

Author(s): Satyaranjan Banerjee
Publisher: Asiatic Society

Page 96

NARRATIVE TALE IN JAIN LITERATURE
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succeeding cantos tell of all manner of heroic deeds of Rāvana. This Rāvana is a great devotee of the Jinas; he restores ruined Jina shrines, and establishes the Jina faith (XI, 1 ff.).
In Canto XI Goyama replies to the king's question as to how the sacrifice of animals originated. A Brahmin had a son Parvata and a pupil Nārada. Owing to blameworthy ascetic practices, Parvata was born again as a Rākşasa, and in the guise of a Brahmin he introduced animal sacrifices. Nārada, however, who is a pious Jaina, declares that these sacrificial acts should be interpreted in the spiritual sense : "The sacrificial animals which are to be killed, are the passions, the sacrificial fee which is to be paid, is truth, forbearance and non-violence, the blessing (to be expected) is (not heaven, but) Nirvāna; those, however, who really slaughter sacrificial animals, go to hell like hunters." (XI, 75-81).
Cantos XII and XIII tell of a fight between Rāvaņa and the god Indra. Indra is defeated and is brought in triumph to Lankā, but is then released. The reason for his humiliation is that in a previous incarnation he had molested a monk. Indra places his son on the throne, becomes a monk, and attains to bliss. Rāvana visits shrines on the Meru hill, where the gods are just paying homage to Anantavīrya, who has attained to perfect knowledge, and he hears the sermon of the latter upon Karman, generosity, the duties of monks and the duties of laymen (XIV). This sermon is also responsible for the conversion of Hanumant, whose descent and whose fights as the ally of Rāvana, are related in Cantos XV and XIX. Through Rāvana Hanumant receives a thousand wives. Canto XX treats of the Jinas, the rulers of the world, the Baladevas and the Vasudevas. It is not until Canto XXI that King Janaka is mentioned, and the story of Dasaratha and the actual Rāma epic begins: it is only in its main features that this story agrees with Vālmīki's Rāmāyaṇa : as regards the details there are many divergences.
Dasaratha is presented by each of his wives Aparājitā and Sumitrā with a son, whose birth has been announced