महावीरचरितम् (महाकवि भवभूति - वीररस-प्रधान रामकथा नाटक सम्पूर्ण ७ अङ्क सटीक)

duced into the Purāṇa at one and the same time, as will be evident upon
a brief consideration of them.
First form.—This is a summary of the Rāmāyaṇa, and occupies three
chapters, 269–271, of the fifth or Sṛishṭi-khaṇḍa. This part of the Padma
seems to be relatively late. The summary corresponds exactly to the story
as we have it in the Bombay recension of Vālmīki's Rāmāyaṇa, except in
the following six points: 1. Rāma, after the marriage, is expressly said to
have lived for twelve years at Ayodhyā (chap. 269, stanza 181); 2. the
story of the crow, which is given in that recension in a spurious canto
coming after ii. 95, is here given as a genuine part of the epic (ch. 269,
st. 194); 3. Rāma stays for thirteen years in Pañchavaṭī itself before he
encounters Śūrpaṇakhā (ch. 269, st. 226); 4. Rāma himself, and not his
brother, cuts off the nose and ears of Śūrpaṇakhā; 5. after the coronation
Rāma rules with his queen Sītā for a thousand years (cp. also ch. 6, st. 45) :
it is only then that the rumour comes to his ears and he abandons his wife;
6. the god-like character of Rāma intrudes itself too frequently in the course
of the Padma narration.
Second form.—Chapter 112 of the fourth or Pātāla-khaṇḍa gives what
is expressly said to be the ancient or purātana Rāmāyaṇa. No authority
is, however, given for the statement, and elsewhere (stanza 12) it is even
called fictitious or kalpita; and this in fact it seems to be. What is more,
it is not even good fiction, as any one may easily see.
Third form.—A brief passage of the fourth or Pātāla-khaṇḍa, stanzas
164–184 of chapter 66, gives not a form of the Rāma-story as such, but
a statement as to the original form of Vālmīki's Rāmāyaṇa. According to
this, Vālmīki's poem had six (not seven) kāṇḍas: 1. Bāla-kāṇḍa, which was
equal to the present Bāla and Ayodhyā kāṇḍas taken together; 2. Araṇya-
kāṇḍa, 3. Kishkindhā-kāṇḍa, 4. Sundara-kāṇḍa, 5. Yuddha-kāṇḍa,—all
these not differing from the similarly named present kāṇḍas; and 6. Uttara-
kāṇḍa, giving Rāma's conversations with Agastya and other sages, and
describing the commencement of the horse-sacrifice, and including presumably
the account of the abandonment of Sītā.
Sītā's ultimate ordeal and disappearance, the death of Lakshmaṇa and
Rāma and others, and whatever else occurred after Vālmīki's appearance with
the twins at Rāma's court,—all these things the Padma ignores as elements
of the original Rāmāyaṇa, as of course it was bound to do, since the twins
could not be expected to sing of events yet to be. We also find here a
statement as to the original extent of the poem, 24,000 stanzas. This
agrees with Vālmīki's statement in Bāla-kāṇḍa i. 4², except that the Padma
does not state the number of cantos (500). This account of the original