365bet娱乐

GENERAL EDITOR'S NOTE In the Jaina tradition Rama has been called Padma also and so by Padmacarita or Paumacariya, Ramacarita is meant. Allured by the great popularity of the Rama-legend the Jaina poets also based their works upon it. Among these Vimalasuri is the pioneer. His Paumacariyam is the first Ramayana in the Jaina tradition and also the first epic written in Prakrit. His work has been the source for the later Jaina writers, on the Ramayana, like Ravisena, Svayambhu, Silacarya and Hemacandra. Apart from the salient features of the Jaina religion Vimalasuri's epic contains enough cultural material pertaining to the contemporary life. The present work is the approved thesis of Dr. K. R. Chandra. He worked on this subject for nearly four years as a Research Scholar of the Institute, first under its eminent ex-Director Dr. H. L. Jain, and present Director and obtained his Ph. D. Degree from the Bihar University. then under the In He Dr. Chandra has divided his work in two parts. the first part he has given a resume of the narrative materials in the Paumacariyam and in the second he has dealt with its cultural and literary aspects. The author has duly classified and lucidly narrated the intervening stories. has compared and contrasted the Rama-Story as found in Vimalasuri on one hand and in Valmiki and Tulsi on the other. The author endorses Vimalasuri's claim that he has purged the traditional Rama-story of its lies-the irrational exaggerations-and cleared the characters of blemishes. One wonders whether the replacement of the mythical and unbelievable feats of the vanaras and the raksasas by the equally unbelievable supernatural powers of the Vidyadharas

( vi ) is rationalisation or sheer substitution of tweedledum for tweedledee, just one set of superstition for another. The author's tracing of Vimalasuri's influence on the later authors of the Ramayana is laborious, though in certain cases as in that of showing Tulsi's indebtedness to Vimalasuri he might have been guided more by his zeal than by the factual data. Dr. Chandra's grasp of the text is thorough and he has dealt with the different aspects of the great epic. His literary evaluation of the text evinces his taste and his keen ears for Prakrit rhythm. We hope the work will prove valuable to the Scholars. We here place on record our thanks to Professor R. P. Poddar for going through the Press Copy before it was committed to press and also to Dr. Nand Kishore Prasad, Research Fellow, for his hard task of arranging the material in proper order and undertaking the arduous work of reading through the proofs. Vaishali, Mahavira Jayanti April 19, 1970. NATHMAL Tatia