Studies in Jainism

Author(s): Ramkrishna Mission Institute of Culture Culcutta
Publisher: Ramkrishna Mission Institute of Culture Culcutta

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STUDIES IN JAINISM have been severely shocked. Even so, he could not refrain from the task he had set for himself of giving to his coreligionists a substitute for the Valmiki Rāmāyana. For, the Rāmāyana was as popular in his days as it is to-day. It had become the very life-blood of the people for whom it was composed. Its influence in moulding the mind of the nation along the path of duty and righteousness was so universal and compelling that almost every religion wished to include the Rāmāyaṇa among its sacred texts, and so earn, if possible, some additional following and popularity for itself. Buddhism seems to have done so. In the Dasaratha Jataka, 15 only a part of the Rāmāyana story is depicted. Even the name of Ravana does not occur in that story. In the eyes of the Buddhists the importance of the Rāmāyana was mainly due to the character of Rāma - the gentle, pious, austere and dutiful Rāma. They cared more for that character which was in some essential aspects the prototype of Buddha. They went so far even as to believe that one of the previous births of the Buddha was that of Rāma. They must have found it rather difficult to reconcile the character of Rāvana with their religious doctrines and beliefs and so it may be, Rāvana could not find a place in the story. But a few centuries later, the Lankāvatāra Sūtra (compiled before 443 A.D.)16 seems to have looked at Rāvana with a benevolent eye. Here, Rāvana is represented as a great sage who holds philosophical discourses with the Buddha, whose disciple he was. He wore the garb of Mahāyāna Buddhism. But no mention is made of his tragic passion for Sitā, and her abduction and the consequences that followed in their train. As stories. these Buddhist representations are insipid and devoid of human interest.
The Jaina view is more interesting. Though it is true that "The sacred books of the Jainas are written in a dry as dust, matter of fact didactic tone, and as far as we know them are seldom instinct with that general human interest
15
There is much controversy regarding the relative priority of this Jātaka and the Valmiki Rāmāyana. The question cannot be decided with any approach to finality as the evidence on both sides are scanty and indefinite. The L.S., trs., Suzuki, p. 7.
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