Story Of Rama In Jain Literature

Author(s): V M Kulkarni
Publisher: Saraswati Pustak Bhandar

Page 94

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Story of Rama in Jain Literature
poet often refers to Pauma as Rama, Rähava, Ramadeva, Siri, Halahara, etc. It is, therefore, obvious that the various names Rahavacariya, Ramacariya and Halaharacariya used in the work stand for the Paumacariya and by no stretch of imagi nation can we ever speak that the Rahavacariya was a work quite different from the Paumacariya of Vimalasûri. Professor K. H. Dhruva, however, appears to have advanced this highly fanciful hypothesis of two separate works called Rabavacariya and Paumacariya to suit his late dating of Paumacariya based on grounds of 'late" metres and 'modern' Prakrit.
No doubt, the poem deals with the life-story of Rama, but it also deals with the life of Laksmina ani Raani at great length. That is Vimalasûri presents to his readers the lives of three of the great figures (viz, the 8th Baladeva, Nārāyaṇa or Vasudeva, and Pratina ayana or Prati-väsu leva). Although Laksmana and Ravana are, with Rama, Šalaka-purusas, they are spiritually inferior to him for he alone at the end of his life here attains Nirvan and the other two sink in hell. This consideration might have weighed with the post when he named his work as Pau nacariya. In the popular story of Rani, he being the first and foremost hero, the work ist naturally named after him (e.g, the Ramayana); and it is not unlikely that this factor too might have influenced the poet in calling his poem Paumacariya. As the date of the Padma-purana of the Hindus is not known definitely we cannot say thai thi name Padmapurāṇa might have influenced Vimalasuri in naming his Purana dealing with the life of Rāma.
8. THE EXTENT OF THE PAUMACARIYA
The Paumacariya is divided into 118 chapters or cantos, the first thirty-five of which are called Uddeśas (Uddeśakas, or occasionally Samuddeśakas) and the rest Parvans. In the extent of individual cantos there is great disparity: the shortest is the 60th canto with nine stanzas only and the longest is the eighth with 286 stanzas. Comparatively speaking, the cantos in the first half of the poem are longer whereas those in the second half are shorter. The total number of stanzas compri
From these stanzas embodying the circumstance or factor responsible for the name Pauma it will be evident to the readers that the following statement of Dr. Jyotiprasad Jain is absolutely erroneous :
महाराजा रामचन्द्र का मुनि अवस्था का नाम पद्म था, अत: जैन परंपरा में रामकथा का पद्मचरित या पद्मपुराण नाम ही रूढ हुआ ।
-(-Vimalarya Aura Unaka Paumäcariyai, P. 438).
91 See Introduction (pp. 7-8) to Paumacariyam (Cha. 27 and 28), edited by Sri S. C. Upadhyaya. 92 Why the poet uses two words for a chapter' or 'a canto' and not one consistently we cannot say.