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An old version of the Jaina Ramayana
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was composed after the Vasudevahindi. We can therefore assert that the Vasudevahindi must have been composed before the end of the 3rd Century A. D., the date fixed for the composition of the Paumacariya, Certainly the contents of the Rāma story contained in the Vasudevahindr reflect a very old tradition. There is no mention of an ordeal by fire imposed on Sita in the Vasudevahindi, but this episode is also absent even in the Ramopakhyana of the Mahabharata, the Uttara purāņa of Gunabhadra and the Tibetan and Khotanese versions of the Rāmāyana. Without adding too many Jaina reli. gious touches to the story, the Rāmāyaṇa as presented in the Vasudevahin? is an extant version of one of the oldest traditions of the popular tale.
