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Story of Rama in Jain Literature
(iii) Ravisena's style and his rank as a poet: Ravisena's work is an enlarged. edition of Palma-Cariya in Sanskrit. Naturally his work cannot claim any originality regarding the unfolding of the story, characterization, conception of the whole epic etc. As far as it is a translation in Sanskrit we must judge his ability to render elegantly Prakrit into Sanskrit. This he has done tolerably well. Being a translation it lacks the perfect ease and spontaneity and grace of the original epic. Being a Digambara writer he has taken the freedom of removing from the original all traces of its being a Svetambara work. The original epic consists of about 9000 verses whereas that of Ravisena is almost double in its extent. The growth in extent is due to the poetic descriptions of various situations, places episodes and expanding of ideas and inclusion of copious Jain teachings etc. These additions of ornate descriptions etc, often interfere with the progress of the story and fail to preserve the beauty and grace of the original. But it must be admitted that on the whole his style is simple and lucid. As may readily be imagined, many words are met with in Ravisena applied in peculiar senses belonging to Jain terminology like 'Samavasarana', 'Samyaktva' 'mithyatva', 'deśana', 'Caitya', 'Sangha", "Nidana", 'Kevala-jñāna', and so on. At places the language of Ravisena betrays Prakritisms. But as a rule his language is chaste, and pure.
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We may point out here to two descriptions which the poet adds to the original in order to demonstrate how in his hand the epic has grown double in its extent : Vimala Suri describes the love-sports of the couple Pavana and Anjana in vv. 77-79 (Canto 16) whereas Ravisena devotes vv. 183-204 (Canto 16) - here Vimala, with admirable restraint, describes the love-sports in 3-4 verses while Ravisana describes them at length and this description borders on obscenity. Again Vimala tells us of Kaikey's proficiency in various arts in a few verses (Canto 24, vv. 4-8) whereas Ravisena employs a large number of verses (Canto 24, vv. 5-84).
In the portion of ornate descriptions of towns, rivers, mountains and varied situations and episodes which Ravisena has added we get a good idea of his poetic abilities. Here he exhibits distinct power of description and command of language. He shows his profound knowledge of the different arts and sciences and philosophy both Hindu and Jain. A student who is acquainted with Jain philosophy and is sufficiently familiar with the Sanskrit language can very well follow the easy and fluent style of Ravisena. In spite of his indebtedness to his predecessor he may justly be included in the class of second-rate poets, and he deserves cur congratulations for introducing the Prakrit epic to the students of Sanskrit literature in lis lucid and pleasant Sanskrit.
(iv) His open partiality for the Digambara Creed: It is but natural that the poet, who himself is a Digambara, should show his bias for the Digambara Creed. Unquestionably his source was the Svetämbara work. He does not care to acknowledge his debt of gratitude to that great Svetambara poet-Vimala Sūri. He delibera
