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Padma-Purana of Acarya Ravişena
(Gautama) then to Sudharman, the son of Dharini. then to Prabhava, then in to Kirtidhara, the unrivalled orator (anuttara-vägmin) and keeping his text in front of himself Ravisena composed his Padmapurāna.
In Canto IV we come across a remarkable etymology of the word Brāhmaṇa in the course of relating the account of the origin of the Brāhmaṇa caste :
यस्मान्मा हननं पुत्र कार्षीरिति निवारितः ।
ऋषभेण ततो या 'माहना' इति ते श्रुतिम् ।।
The word 'mahana' is not accepted, as already pointed out by Pt. Nathuram Premi, 11 in Sanskrit literature (of course, excluding the present Jain Padmapurana) or lexicons. The word 'Mahana ' ( rather māhana) in the sense of 'Brāhmana' is of frequent occurrence in Jain agama literature of the Svetämbaras and its derivation from Prakrit expression 'mahana' ('Don't kill or strike or beat) is significant, and it is actually offered in Palmacariya in identical context; viz., the origin of Brahmana as मा हसु पुत्त एए, जं उसभजिणेण वारिओ भरहो । तेण इमे सवल च्चिय, बुच्चेति व माहणा लोए ॥
99
Thus this fact leads us to the inference, says Nathuram Premi, that the source of Ravisena's Padmapurana is Pulmacariya.
Canto XI is highly interesting and contains logical and philosophical discussions and citations from the sacred texts of the Brahmanas like the Upanisads and Bhagavadgita and sets forth a vigorous refutation of the creation theory. The canto is far superior to the corresponding one of Vimalasuri and admirably attests to Ravisena's wide scholarship, high education in philosophy and great power of and masterly skill in argumentation.
In canto XXV Ravisena informs us that Aparajitä, Sumitra, Kekaya and Suprabha the four wives of Dasaratha, gave birth to Padma ( = Rāma), Lakşmana, Bharata and Šatrughna respectively. This is a departure from Paumacariya, which mentions that
शिष्येणोत्तर वाग्मिना प्रकटितं पद्मस्य वृत्तं मुनेः श्रेयः साधुसाधिद्धिकरणं सर्वोत्तमं मङ्गलम् ॥
CXXIII 167
does not figure in the list of Acaryas; and we
It may be noted that the name of Kirtidhara know next to nothing about his written text of the Rama-story.
11 Jain Sahitya Aura Itihāsa ( in Hindi, 1st ecn. 1942, 2nd ed. 1956).
12
असूत तनये कान्त्या विशाखमपराजिता । पद्मनेत्रस्य पद्माख्या पितृभ्यां तस्य निर्मिता ।। सुमित्रापि ततः पुत्रमसूत परमयुतिम् । सुलक्ष्मा लक्ष्मणाख्यायां पितृभ्यामेव योजितः || तनयं केकयासून दिव्यरूपसमन्वितम् । यो जगाम महाभाग्यो भुवने भरतश्रुतिम् ||
