________________
and Cambodian versions of the Ramayana. There is also a Buddhist version by name of Dasharatha-Jataka.
In the Jaina tradition, which is as old, if not more, as the Brahmanical. Rama has all along been revered as one of the 63 pre-eminently auspicious personages of proto-history. He was the 8th Balabhadra, as Lakshmana was the 8th Narayana and and Ravana the 8th Pratinarayana. Rama performed many heroic deeds, ruled over his kingdom as a just and popular ruler, finally abdicated his throne, renounced worldly life and pleasures, practised austerities as an ideal Jaina ascetic, became an Arhat-kevalin or Jina, the perfect man-god, and ultimately attained Nirvana or Moksha. Since, as an ascetic, he came to be known by the name of Padma or Padma-munishvara, the Jaina Puranic account narrating his life-story has usually been called the Padma-purana or Padma-charita (Prakrit Paumachariya, and Apabhramsha Pauma-chariu). Rama, his parents, brothers, sons, wife, Sita the veritable paragon of virtue, her brother Bhamandala, Rama's friends and allies like Hanumana, Sugriva and Vibhishana and arch enemy, Ravanam the notorious king of the golden Lanka, are living characters in the Jaina version. The principal characters, events and their sequence are roughly the same a in Valmiki's Ramayana; but there are marked differences as well. It may look strange that in the case of several of such differences, majonity of non-Jaina writers adopted the Jaina view, ignoring that of Valmiki's. Incidentally, it is a concrete evidence of the influence of the Jaina version on the development of the Rama story and Rama literature in general. Some five dozen theses have so for been approved by different Universities, which have vividly brought out this fact.
The earliest available Jaina version of the story is the Prakrit Paumachariya (Vira Nirvan S. 530=3A. D) by Vimalasuri, which was thus written within a century or so of the publication of Valmiki's Ramayana, with the avowed object to dispel the misconceptions and errors that were circulated by the latter, and to present the true account of Rama's story, as handed down in the Jaina tradition. It was followed by Sanghadasa's Vasudeva Hindi (c. 600 A. D.), Ravisena's Sanskrit Padma-Charita (675. AD.), Suambhu's Apabhramsha Ramayana (c. 800 A. D), Gunabhadra's Uttarpurana (c. 850 A. D.), Pushpadanta's Apabhramsha Mahapurana (967 A. D.), Chamundarai's Kannada Mahapurana (978 A. D.), Bhadreshvara's Prakrit work (11th c.), Kannada Pampa Ramayana (early 12th c.), Hemchandracharya's Sanskrit Mahapurana (mid. 12th c.), and many others. In fact, some 250 works are known to have been produced by Jaina writers on or relating to the Rama theme, of which 25 are in Prakrit, 71 in Sanskrit, 22 in Apabhramsha, 82 in Hindi, 17 in Kannada, 2 in Tamil, 4 in Gujarati, 3 in Marathi and 2 in Urdu. Thus the contribution of the Jainas to Rama literature can be said to be quite substantial.
Jyoti Nikunj Charbagh Lucknow (U. P.)
39
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
