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114
Story of Rama in Jain Literature
Here possibly he was under the influence of Vimala, who empties the Rämāyana of its supernatural elements. He has again drawn on the Svetambara version represented by Vimala's Paŭma-cariya while describing Satrughna as the son of Kaikeys, and Råvana's death at the hands of Laksmaņa.
His own contribution : Sanghadása's contribution to the development of the story of Rama lies in his description of Mandodari's marriage with Ravana and of the birth of Sita as Ravana's daughter. It appears that Sanghadāsa introduced this innovation in order to explain the mystery of Sita's birth as we find it in the Hindu version. It may be noted here, in passing, that the genealogy of Rāvana, given by Sanghadása only partially agrees with their counter-parts in the Hindu version or the Paūmacariya. Probably he invented the names of Rāvana's ancestors such as Sahasragríva, Pancasatagriva, Satagriva, etc. with a view to making the name Dasagriva not sound strange or fantastic.
Sanghadása's influence is seen in the work of Gunabhadra, who borrows, with slight modification, this account of the birth of Sită and some names of Ravana's ancestors such as Sahasragriva etc.
Critical appreciation : Sanghadäsa presents an abridged version of Válmiki's Rāmāy. aņa (excluding the later history of Rāma)/Vyasa's Ramopakhyana, adding one or two original features and certain Jain traits with a view to transforming it into a Jain story. He attempts the difficult task of reducing the very complex and variegated epic-tale into a simple well-knit story. He fairly well does the feat of reducing the diversified and complex epic-tale into a simple coherent story in two ways. He emphasizes the main story and omits all the Brahmanical myths and legends that have hardly any connection with the main story. He excludes all descriptions of towns, oceans, seasons, mountains and rivers, the rising and setting of the sun and the moon, in short, all scenes of nature and of the charms of maidens. He boldly omits all passages of poetry and worldly wisdom and general morality. And it must be said to Sanghadása's credit that he rightly does so, as they interfere with the progress of the story, which is after all the main thing for the reading public. By this serious literary operation' he gives the narrative the regular form of a connected story; and he adds to his style such qualities as brevity, directness, lucidity and raciness. Lovers of ornate poetry would, however, dub this abridged version as a rather dull story from which all the poetry of the original epic has disappeared. And Välmiki's admirers would, with some justification, allege that the Jain traits introduced by the author disfigure the beautiful story of the original epic. Lastly, it may be noted that Sanghadäsa unlike many Jain writers, refrains from adding sermons to elucidate Jain doctrines.
