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Story of Rāma in Jain Literature
TA
(b) OMISSIONS: (i) Gunabhadra omits the account of any attempt on the part of Bharata's mother
to secure the throne for her son. (11) He omits also the account of Rāma's forest-life. (lli) He drops the account of Lakşmana's transfixion by Rāvana's Sakti.
He completely drops Rāma's later history-the scandal regarding Sitā's purity, her abandonment into forest by Rāma, the shelter that she finds, the birth of twin children, their fight with Rāma, etc., -their union with their father Rama, Sita's
fire-ordeal are conspicuous in his version by their absence. (v) The episode of Vita-Sugrīva is left out.
(c) ALTERATIONS: (1) sita was really Rāvana's daughter but on account of evil portents she was
abandoned, found by and brought up by Janaka. (ii) As Råma protected his sacrifice, Janaka gave him in marriage his daughter Sītā.
Rama and party go to the old capital-Vārāṇasi of Dasaratha and not into exile.
It is at Närada's instigation that Rāvana is enamoured of Sitā of wondrous beauty. (v) Rāma learns of the abduction of Sīta by Rāvana through Dasaratha's letter. (vi) Aņumān-Hanūmat-twice visits Lankā-of course on two different missions, (vii) It is the three dreams that come to Lakşmaņa that indicate his death etc.
(d) ADDITIONS: (1) Dasaratha's original capital was Vārāṇasī, later on he shifts to Ayodhyā.
The golden deer incident is an addition by Guņabhadra-of course, this incident is common to Vālmīki's Rāmāyaṇa. Laksmana kills Välin. Rāvana cuts off the head of illusory Sitā and throws it before Rāma who falls in a swoon-of course we have an account of the Magic Head of Rāma to dupe Sitā and the Magic head of Sità (Cantos 31 and 81 respectively) to dupe Rāma
(Hanûmat etc.) in the Valmīki's epic. As these two versions of Vimala and Gunabhadra are representative of all the Jain versions of the Rāma Story - excepting, of course, Harişeņas' version which is nothing but a minimum abridgment of Valmiki's Rāmāyana-we attempt to give here an outline of the Rāma Tale common to all the Jain forms:
(ii) OUTLINE OF THE RĂMA STORY COMMON TO ALL THE JAIN FORMS There was a king called Dasaratha of the Ikşvāku family, who ruled over Ayodhyä.
