Studies in Jain Literature

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

Page 75

DEVELOPMENT OF THE STORY OF RĀMA IN JAIN LITERATURE
The gāthā embodying details of the story of Rāma runs as follows :
लक्खणरामे देवीहरणे सोगम्मि आलिहे चलणा ।
उवरि ण दिट्ठ जोगो अत्थित्तासासणे चेव ॥ From the peculiar method of summarising the essential details of the story of Rāma it is crystal clear that a story of Rāma containing these features already existed in an oral or written tradition; for without such traditional information the verse referred to above would not be quite intelligible. In his commentary on the Upadeśapada composed in V. S. 1174 Municandra adds a short story of Rāma in thirty verses to explain the Sangraha-gathā. His version agrees with that of Vimalasūri except in two details : (i) Municandra speaks of three principal queens of Daśaratha, viz., Kausalyā, Sumitrā and Kaikeyī, and their three sons, Rāma, Laksmana and Bharata respectively and (ii) he elucidates the picture motif alluded to in the gāthā.
The particular version which existed before and was utilised by Haribhadrasūri has not come down to us. The fact, however, remains that the credit of introducing the picture-motif in the story of Rāma for the first time goes to an unknown writer who must have flourished before Haribhadrasūri and not to Bhadreśvara as I had claimed elsewhere.
(v) Paümacariu of Svayambhūdeva (middle of the 8th century A. D. ?): Svayambhū himself states that he is presenting the story of Rāma as given by Ravişeņa. He, however, does not slavishly imitate his predecessor. He is perhaps the first Jain poet to divide the poem into Kāndas. Of his five Kandas four have titles common with Vālmīki's poem-only instead of Bālakānda he speaks of Vidyadharakānda. He does not have the two titles Aranya-kānda and Kiskindhakānda. He effects omissions, abridgements, additions and alterations with a to presenting the story in a more attractive and poetic form. His changes, however, do not relate to the principal story of Rāma but to such topics as Ksetravarnana, Kalavarnana, Purvabhavakathana, Upākhyānas and descriptions. His work certainly gains by these changes in its poetic value.
(vi) Caüppannamahāpurişacariya of śīlācārya (868 A. D.) : Śīlācārya declares : “Thus is narrated in brief the life-history of Rāma and Lakşmaņa, which is described at length in works like Paümacariya." From this statement of his it is obvious that Vimala's work was in his mind when he prepared this abridged version. He has, however, introduced some remarkable features from Vālmīki's version directly possibly because of their popularity in his days or indirectly through Sanghadāsa whose version always shares these features. These features include the golden stag incident and the Vālī-episode. It deserves Stud.-8