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

Introduction [lx
24. Later modifications of the Rāma-story : 1. Buddhistic form.—
The Buddhistic form of the Rāma-story is to be found in the ‘Daśaratha-
Jātaka’ (Faüsboll, iv. pp. 124 ff.). The story is as follows. Daśaratha,
king of Benares, had three children: Rāma, Lakshmaṇa, and Sītā, all born
from his first wife, after whose death he marries a second, and has by her
a fourth child, a son named Bharata. Overjoyed at having another son
born to him, Daśaratha grants a boon to his wife. After seven or eight
years the wife remembers the boon and asks Daśaratha to fulfil it by giving
the throne to her son. The king refuses to grant her request; but fearing
the machinations of the woman, he advises the three children by his first
wife to stay away from the court for twelve years. He makes it twelve
years, because astrologers had told him that he would live so long. Rāma,
with his brother Lakshmaṇa and his sister Sītā, repairs to the Himalayas.
Contrary to the prophecy of the astrologers Daśaratha dies in the ninth
year. The widowed queen tries to secure the throne for Bharata, but he
sternly refuses and goes to seek his eldest brother, to whom the throne by
right belonged. Rāma, however, is unwilling to come immediately, seeing
that the period of twelve years assigned to him by his father was not yet
over. He stays away another three years and then returns, marries Sītā,
and rules in peace.
This feeble, distorted, unmotivated story was once regarded as a possible
source of Vālmīki’s Rāmāyaṇa. Professor Jacobi (Das Rāmāyaṇa, pp. 84–93)
has already shown the utter untenability of such a view. And now we
have definite evidence to prove that the Rāma-Rāvaṇa story was already
well known¹ before 300 B.C.
**25. Later modifications of the Rāma-story : 2. Jain forms.—**The Jain
forms of the Rāma-story are to be found in works like the Padma-Purāṇa
of Ravisheṇa, the Dharma-parīkshā of Amitagati, and the Trishashṭhiśa-
lākāpurushacharita (chap. vii) of Hemachandra. The story in the main
follows Vālmīki’s Rāmāyaṇa, and the evident object of these works must
be to utilize an already existing story for preaching the special doctrines of
the cult. Thus they make Rāma a pious Jain, a total abstainer from meat.
This of course involved the omission of the golden deer incident (see § 18, J);
Rāvaṇa abducts Sītā while Rāma is engaged in the battle with the fourteen
thousand. Similarly Rāma kills Vālin in a fair fight (contrast § 18, K).
Years after her abandonment, when Rāma meets Sītā once more, it was not
through the instrumentality of Vālmīki, or through the incidents attending

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¹ See Kauṭilīya, p. 11, line 3 from the bottom.          the reference to the Rāmāyaṇa in one of
    As Bhāsa’s date is uncertain, the fact of          his plays (Avimāraka, p. 16, line 2) cannot
    his having written two Rāma-plays and          have much significance chronologically.