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Story of Rāma in Jain Literature
more voluminous work (containing 125000 stanzas) of Pundarska, a Ganadhara. He had humiliated the Bauddhas on the strength of his Syadvāda dialectics, he was well-versed in Yoga, was totally indifferent to worldly pleasures, was a pious soul, was the ocean of Vairāgya-sentiment, proficient in all Vidyās (arts and science). His work bears testimony to his vast erudition. No other work is known to have composed by him.
2. NATURE AND CONTENTS OF THE WORK The present work is after the style of the Mahatmyas of the Puranas. It is an epic, mostly in Slokas, in fourteen (or rather fifteen) cantos. Its theme is the glorification of the sacred Satrunjaya hills. A table of contents of the epic may be given as follows:
Canto I : On Cosmology. Canto II : The Life-history of King Mahspāla. Canto III : The Story of Rsabha, the first Jina. Canto IV : The battle between Bharata and Bāhubali. Canto V : Bharata's Pilgrimage and restoration of sacred temples to the
Jinas. Canto VI : Rşabha and Bharata's Nirvana and the Story of Surya-yasas. Canto VII : The Life history of Dravida and Vālkhilya and restoration of sacred
places. Canto VIII : The story of Ajita-svāmi, Sagara and Santi-Jina. Canto IX : The Legend of Rama. CantosX-XIII : The Story of the Pandavas connected with the legend of Krsna
and the life of Arista-nemi. Cantos XIV : The Legend of Parsva-nātha - the Jina, and a long prophecy of (or XIV-XV) : Mahāvira, 'which contains all manner of historical allusions, the
significance of which is, however, not yet explained'. The work is placed in the mouth of Mahāvīra who on the occasion of a solemn assembly upon the Satruñjaya mountain itself, at the request of India, relates the legends connected with the mountain sacred to Rşabha - the First Jina. It is interesting, however, to note that the poet brings in the stories of the Rāmāyana and the Mahabharata and of Krsna adapting them so as to fit them in Jain setting. We are here concerned mainly with the Rama Story. Hence we give below a detailed summary of the contents of that 9th canto where the Rama legend occurs.
3. AN OUTLINE OF THE RĀMA STORY AS TOLD BY DHANESVARA After many Kings in the Ikşvāku dynasty had passed, there ruled over Ayodhyā, a prince called Vijaya. By his wife Himacūlä he had two sons Vajra-bāhu and Purandara. Purandara begot Kirtidhara and he begot Sukošala who abdicated the government in
