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Story of Rāma in Jain Literature
Abduction of Sita SANDHI LXXIII:
When Rama pursued the golden deer and went a long way off the sun set. 27 Rāma, exhausted with a long journey returned when it was sun-rise. He made anxious enquiries about Sitā but could not get any information whatsoever about her. He sent servants in all directions in search of Sită and he himself wandered in the forest to find her out. He piteously asked of a swan, an elephant, an antelope, a bee, a peacock and a parrot to give him Sita's news. His servants traced only her upper garment, brought it to Rāma; he embraced it; he thought that the wicked Vidyadharas might have carried off Sita by force. Just then arrived there a messenger of Dasaratha with a letter which read as follows:
A dream came to me that Rāhu abducted Rohiņi, the consort of the moon; and that the moon all alone wanders in the sky. I asked the Purohita the significance of this dream. He interpreted it thus: “Rāvana has carried off Sitá, the wife of Rama. This Rävana is the lord of Lanka; he is the chief of the Vidyadharas." Hearing the tragic news of the abduction of Sita, Bharata, Satrughna and Janaka and the tributory princes went to Rāma. Lakşmana was furious and roared that he would kill that Vidyadhara chief if he would come within the range of his sight. While Rama was plunged in profound grief for his lost Sita, Sugrfva and Hanūmat28 came to see him. Hanūmat taking Rāma's letter
27.
Here (Kadavaka 1) we have a fine description of the sunset. "The setting sun was, as it were, a heap of stones piled up by the sea l; the earth as if devoured the wheel of the chariot of Ratil; the crying birds seemed to say : Even a god undergoes a fall when he comes in contact with Văruņi (the West, and wine)." Then follows (Kadavaka 2) a marvellous description of Nabhas-srl who has become a widow: "She has put on a red garment, as it were, of the evening red glow; the crescent moon is as if her broken bangle, the withered lotus is as it were her faded foce; the stars are, as it were, the scattered pearls of her broken necklace." From this poetic description we may reasonably infer that in those days the Jain Society recommended the wearing of red-coloured sa: Ties for widows, breaking of bangles and not wearing of ornaments like necklace. We have in the later portion of Kadavaka 2 a striking description of the sun-rise : The sun who destroyed the frost of the lotuses (who caused the separation of Rama and Sita) shone like a second Rāvana I It was as if the blazing fire of separation in the case of Sifa I. as if a red flower worn on the head by the woman in the form of the East I, as if a lake of blood from the body of Ravana. The account of Sugriva and Hanumat is in full agreement with the one given by Gunabhadra In his Uftara-Purana.
28.
