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The Ramayana Version of silācārya
143
143
Vimala
7.
No reference to Trijatā.
Śilācārya
Valmiki Trijatā's role : Trijatā consoled Sita when A female demon, one of the she was retained as a captive in Raksasa attendants kept by the Nandanavana.
Ravana to watch over Sita, when she was kept as a captive in the Asoka-vātikā. She acted very kindly towards Sitā and induced her companions to
do the same. Rāvana's death : It is Laksmana who kills him It is Rāma who kills Ravana. with the 'disc.
8.
It is Laksmana who kills him with the disc.
Same as in silácarya's account.
9. The condition of Rama and Laksmana after death : Rāma attains Nirvana; Laksmana Rāma to keep his promise to descends to hell.
Time "abandons Laksmana who goes to the river Sarayū, suppresses all his senses, and is conveyed bodily by Indra to heaven.-- Rama enters the glory of Visnu with his body
and his followers." 10. The span of life and height of Rāma : Rama's span of life-12000 years; "Then thousand years Ayo- 16 'Dhanu's height.
dhyä, blest with Rāma's rule, had peace and rest."
17000 years -- span of life. 16 Dhanus--height.
The Relation of Silācārya's Version to the Versions of Valmiki and Vimala : The close comparison instituted above clearly points out that in regard to some features (viz., 3, 4, 6 and 7) Silācārya is in agreement with Valmiki and in regard to some other features (viz, 1, 5, 8 and 9) with Vimala. As regards feature 10, he partially agrees with Vimala. About feature 2, however, we have no clue at all to say whether he agrees with the former or the latter. Silācārya, unlike his distinguished predecessor Sanghadāsa, ends his story with the statement that Rama attained liberation and Laksmana descended to hell. He, however, boldly omits, in accordance with Sanghadāsa, the later history of Rāma as found either in Vālmīki or Vimala. This omission of almost the whole latter history of Rama is not easy to explain. May be, he did not find it interesting enough or sufficiently important to be included in his abridged version. At the end of his version he declares: 'Thus is narrated in brief the life-history of Rama and Laksmana, which is described at length in works like Paümacarlya". From this statement of his it is obvious that Vimala's work was before his mental eye when he prepared this abridged version. He has, however, introduced some remarkable features from Valmiki's version
