Studies in Jain Literature

Author(s): V M Kulkarni
Publisher: Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre

Page 31

SOME ASPECTS OF PAÜMACARIYA
Corresponding to the great epic of Välmīki-Rāmāyaṇa in Sanskrit the Jains have a number of Rāmāyaṇas composed in Prakrit, Sanskrit and Apabhraṁśa languages. The earliest among these is the Prakrit epic Paümacariya (Pc) (Padmacarita). Padma is the name of Rama in this epic. It is written by Vimalasūri (Vimala) in the Prakrit called Jain Māhārāṣṭrī by modern scholars. Scholars like H. Jacobi place it in the third century A. D. or somewhat later. In this brief account light is thrown on some of its aspects :
(i) Its form: A Purāņa
The narrative literature of the Jains is vast in extent and varied in scope1. It is generally divided into four broad categories as follows: (a) the Purāņas and the Mahapurānas, (b) the Caritras, Kathās and Akhyānas, (c) the Prabandhas and (d) the Kathākośas. We are here concerned with the first category only as the work under study calls itself a Purāņa (I. 32, CXVIII.III). The term Purāṇa originally meant nothing but 'Purāṇam Akhyanam', i. e., 'old narrative'. Then in the course of time it came to denote 'a species of literature' comprising works of religious and didactic contents in which were collected ancient traditions of the creation, the deeds of the gods, heroes, saints, and distant ancestors of the human race, the beginnings of the famous royal families and so on. The term Purana is defined in Hindu literature as follows'2:
A Purāņa treats of five subjects (1) Sarga, 'Creation', (2) Pratisarga, 'recreation', i. e., the periodical annihilation and renewal of the worlds, (3) Vamsa, 'account of the genealogy', viz, of the gods and the Rsis, (4) Manvantaras, 'Epochs between the Manus'-the great periods, each of which has a Manu or primal ancestor of the human race, and (5) Vaṁśānucarita, 'the history of the dynasties whose origin is traced back to the Sun (solar dynasty) and the Moon (lunar dynasty)'. The Brahmavaivartapuraṇa, however, says that the five 'lakṣaṇas' are only for the 'Puranas' and the 'Upapurāņas', while the Mahāpurāṇas (the great Purāņas) have ten lakṣaṇas' including praise of Viṣṇu