Jaina Ramayana

The degree of concentration on a key character is a major point of distinction among Ramayanas. In his early passages, Valmiki emphasises on Rama and his past; Vimalasuri's Jaina Ramayana and the Thai epic, on the other hand, focus on Ravana's ancestry and exploits. Ravana is a noble hero fated by his karma to fall for Sita and bring death upon himself in the latter [Jaina texts], but he is an overbearing demon in other traditions. In a three-part series, I'll attempt to explore three of many of Ravana's characterisations.

Image: 8th century Ravana lifting Kailasha parvat legend in Ramayana at Virupaksha temple, Pattadakal Hindu monuments Karnataka. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Vimalasuri's Jaina Ramayana, known as Paumacariya (Prakrit for the Sanskrit Padmacarita), examines the Valmiki and corrects its mistakes and Hindu excesses. This is a pratipurana, or anti- or counter-purana, like other Jains puranas. Prati, which means "anti- '' or "counter-," is a popular Jaina prefix.

The Jains' Vimalasuri begins the narrative with Ravana's ancestry and glory, rather than Rama's. Ravana is one of the Jaina tradition's sixty-three commanders or salakapurusas. He is noble, scholarly, and a disciple of Jaina gurus, earning all of his magical talents and weaponry through austerities (tapas). To appease one of the gurus, he swears that he will not touch any woman who is unwilling. He laid siege to an impregnable fort on one notable occasion. The queen of that realm falls in love with him and sends him her messenger; he breaches the fort and defeats the king using her knowledge of the fort. He restores the kingdom to the king and advises the queen to return to her husband as soon as he conquers it.

Later, when he hears from soothsayers that he would meet his end through a woman named Sita, he is shaken to his core. It is the same Ravana who falls in love with Sita's beauty, abducts her, seeks in vain to earn her graces, sees himself fall, and dies on the battlefield. In these stories, he is a wonderful man who is undone by a passion that he has pledged to resist but can't. Sita is his daughter, according to another Jaina Ramayana story, but he is unaware of it: this Oedipal predicament stacks the odds against him even further.

In truth, this Ravana is a tragic figure in our modern eyes; we are moved to adoration and empathy for Ravana when the Jainas tell the story. They even justify Ravana's identity as the Ten-Headed Demon. His mother was given a necklace with nine stones when he was born, which she wore around his neck. She named him Dasamukha, or the Ten-faced One because she saw his face reflected in them nine times.

Ravana is a Pluto-like abduction into the dark region in the south (the south being the abode of death); Kamba's Ramayana is a rereading of Valmiki's Ramayana, which is a discourse of the dominant Aryan culture. In a later version of Asura, Neelakantan appears to caricature Ravana, the Dravidian work's hero, and the attempt appears to delegitimize Kamaba's claim to Ravana's greatness.

Through the exploration of the character of Ravana in different versions of the epic, we can recognize the crucial role religious attitudes and beliefs play in shaping the characterisations within Indian epics. In conclusion, the versions that were most popular and accepted in India tend to Ravana as cardboard characters whereas the other retellings try to justify and bring forth the actions and struggles of different characters according to the society and values they were developed in.

Image: Ravana is obstructed by Sita. Source: Wikimedia Commons.