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Story of Rāma in Jain Literature
4. CRITICAL REMARKS
(1) HIS STYLE AND POETIC ABILITY Dhanesvara claims that his work is full of various Rasas and desires continued duration for his work so long as the sun and moon rise to dispel darkness.22 The work is in glorification of the Satrunjaya mountain which is decidedly the most sacred place of pilgrimage to the Jains. It should naturally therefore enjoy certain amount of popularity. Dhanesvara's language is noble and powerful and his style is on the whole easy, fluent and lucid. He makes judicious use of poetic embellishments such as Upamā, Utpreksä, Ślesa, Rūpaka and Atiśayokti23. Many words belonging to Jain terminology are frequently met with in his work. A peculiarity of his style is that very often he uses 'Itas', 'Itaśc' while introducing another thread of the story. Occasionally we meet with otherwise rarely used words such as Asüryampasya. In him we find a tendency to juxtapose homophonous words.
As a story-teller, however, his abilities are not distinct. The way he narrates the legend of Rāma shows that he does not know the art of abridging'. In his abridged version he has retained certain narratives which are not an essential part of the story of Rama and skipped over most touching and soul-stirring events in the life of Rama. Thus for example he gives in detail the narrative of Pavananjaya and Anjană-Sundari, the parents of Hanumat, which could have been altogether dropped or given in brief; whereas he mentions in passing the most important and major event in Râma's life, viz., the Repudiation of pregnant Sītā by Rāma on account of public scandal. Indeed it is very amazing and extraordinary that the whole of the later history of Rama is told in 8 stanzas only.
The summary of the contents as given above shows that the Satruñjaya-Mähatmya gives the story after Vimala's Pc. Dhanesvara has introduced certain changes in the narrative which may be classified as follows:
See verse 250 of the last Canto.
22. 23.
e.g..पतद्गृहमिवासाध्यम|ल्मूलितवृक्षवत् ।
स्थिराकतुं न शक्तोऽत्र कोऽपीहक्ष कलेवरम् ।।
- v. 140 (Upama). And w. 168-70 which tell how Ayodhyā lost all her splendour at the departure of Rama and party (Vinokti and Malopamā): and v. 416:
शरपाषाणसम्पेषभतो वह्निभृतिष्वलम् । रणतीर्थे दहन् वृक्षान् संस्कारायाभवत्तदा ।
(Atisayokti).
2 farct AE: H
TTA:
v. 431 (Upamā), v. 30 (Slesa): v. 28 (Utpreksa).
