________________
134
Story of Rāma ir Jain Literature
Uttara-Purana
Paüma-Cariya
Purāņa. In the title equal prominence is The title rightly includes the name of Padma given to Rāma and Lakşmana, Sita and - Rāma - only as he alone attains in that Rāvana. The whole of the narrative forms very birth the highest goal of a devotee. a part of Parvan 67 and Parvan 68. The It treats of the story in about 9000 verses. verses number just a little over 1200. It is Purana and Kavya at the same time. It reads more like a Purana and less like It is wholly in Prakrit, and the widely used a Kävya. It is entirely in Sanskrit and metre Árya is throughout employed except the metre commonly used is the Anuştup. ing the change of metre at the end. The work The style is on the whole easy yet
is written in easy yet elegant style marked elegant, marked by the presence of oft by ornate descriptions that are very often used alarnkāras such as UpamāUtprekşā, introduced. Rūpaka, Drstānta and Arthāntaranyása.
All these points are rather unimportant if not altogether out of the court-in connection with the present problem.
(iv)
CHARACTERISATION
RĀVAŅA : Ravana is represented as a tyrant
Rāvana is portrayed as a Pravara-Puruşa and wicked and evil-minded person. with only one major weakness - his passion
for Sitä - Rama's wife. KAIKEYİ : Kaikeyi ( who contributes so much Kaikeyi, the mother of Bharata, is to the progress and development of sympathetically represented throughtout action in Ramayana of Valmiki and in the the epic as a noble and loving mother. When Vimala's version) is only once casually faced with 'Sarva-nasa - loss of her husband mentioned as the wife of Dasaratha and and son - she tries to retain her son at mother of Laksmaņa; and then she is as home allowing Dasaratha to become a monk it were completely forgotten, by the poet (she is not guilty of the court-intrigue as we do not find her any more on the in the Valmiki's Rāmāyana.) scene. RĀMA: Rāma is shown on the whole a pious Rāma refused to permit the Vanaras to and righteous soul. He, however, gives go and interrupt Rāvana in his meditation. his consent to the interruption of He kills the Vita-Sugriva. Rāvana's vidya-sadhana. It is Laksmana
