Essay name: Paumacariya (critical study)
Author:
K. R. Chandra
Affiliation: Research institute of Prakrit, Jainology and Ahimsa Vaishali
This is a critical 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, contrasting with the divine portrayal in Valmiki鈥檚 version.
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( vi )
is rationalisation or sheer substitution of tweedledum for
tweedledee, just one set of superstition for another.
The author's tracing of Vimalas奴ri's influence on the
later authors of the R膩m膩ya峁嘺 is laborious, though in
certain cases as in that of showing Tulsi's indebtedness to
Vimalas奴ri 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
