________________
136
Story of Rāma in Juin Literaiure
that of Ravişena almost perfectly agrees). So to find an answer to the question raised we may set forth the following logical possibilities: (1) Guņabhadra was not aware of the existence of the epics of Vimala and Ravişena.
Even if he was aware of their existence he did not think the narrative embodied therein to be good enough for his acceptance. He gives the story in some work of his predecessor belonging to his Guru -
Parampară - which work is now lost to us. (iv) He gives literary shape to the oral tradition as handed down by a line of successive
teachers of his Sangha. (v) He gives shape to some local version that was then current.
Now let us examine these logical possibilities:
Gunabhadra flourished in the 9th Century A.D. So it is not likely that he was not aware of the existence of the works of Vimala (and/or) Ravişena; or that he gave literary shape to local version as he is a 'modern writer'compared with the celebrated Hindu poets Vyasa and Vālmiki and the Svetămbara poet Vimala-there must have been current their versions with some slight variations at the time of Gunabhadra. So alternatives (i) and (v) we may dismiss as improbable. Alternative (ii) also may be dismissed as improbable as a man of Guņabhadra's calibre cannot be accused of lack of balanced judgment.. Of the remaining two alternatives it is difficult to say which is more probable. It is quite likely that he embodied in his Purana the story of Rāma as it came to him through ĀcāryaParamparā.
We have some reason to believe however that Gunabhadra may have been indebted to Kavi Paramesthi or Paramesvara. He is said to have composed a Purana glorifying 63 Salaka-Puruşas-celebrities of the Jain Church. Gunabhadra himself says that it was a gadya-kathā and that it was used by Jinasena for his Adi-Purana45. Jinasena calls it Vagartha-samgraha46. Now if Jinaşeņa followed Kavi Parmesvara in composing his AdiPurana it is not unlikely that Jinasena's pupil, who completed his teachers' unfinished
45. Kaviparamesvaranigaditagadyakathă-mātrkam puroscaritam
Up. Prasasti 17. 46. Sa Pujyah ...... Paramesvarah
Vägarthasangraham..... purānam yaj samagrahit
Adi-Purāna I. 60. 47. Cảvundaraya (978 A.D.) in his Adipurāņa declares that the Mahapurāna was composed formerly
(even before Jinasena and Guņabhadra) by Kuci Bhattaraka and Srinandi Muni. 48. See Jain Sahitya aura Itihăsa p. 280.
