Paumacariya (critical study)
by K. R. Chandra | 1970 | 238,015 words
This is an English study of the Paumacariya: the earliest Jain version of Rama's life story, written in Prakrit by Vimalasuri dating to the 4th century AD. In this text, Rama (referred to as Padma) is depicted with lotus-like eyes and a blooming face. The Paumacariya places emphasis on the human aspects of characters rooted in Jain values, contrast...
49. The previous birth of Mitrayasa
[Full title: Didactic stories; (A) Religious cum Moral Stories; (49) The previous birth of Mitrayasa or The story of a hungry traveller]
A certain traveller, on not obtaining food in a certain village, expressed in anger that the whole village should get burnt to ashes. By chance the village caught fire and got destroyed. All the village people threw away that man into the burning flames of the fire. After his death, he was reborn as a cook of a king, thereafter as a hellish being and again as Mitrayasa, the mother of Srivardhita (77.106-110). The Paumacariya (80.196-199) and the Ramapurana of Bhattaraka Somasena. (p. 162) contain the same account.