Jain Ramayana-Paumacaryu: Rendering into English from Apaphramsa

The Ramayana has been popular with the masses of the country from the time immemorial. Initially it was known in fragments or in the form of folk tales but after the composition of the Ramayana by the sage Valmiki, there had been a boost in its popularity. The importance of the story of Rama became quite widespread and it influenced the hearts of the poets irrespective of the religious barriers. After the composition of the text by the sage Valmiki, the text influenced the poets of the other faiths like the Buddhism and Jainism. Though the adoption of the story was not quite impressive with the Buddhist but with the Jainas, however, it became quite popular and it was Vimala Suri who for the first time composed Paumacaryu (Padmacarita) by about the beginning of the Christian era. It was a sort of reaction to various mythological statements of Valmiki or the critical appreciation of his work. Vimala Suri was indeed the forerunner of the Ramayana of the later Jaina poets. Thereafter there had been a continuous flow of Jaina Ramayana works right from the Gupta period to the late medieval times and over a dozen works on Rama were composed by these Jaina poets, and each one of them his won importance. The present work Jain Ramayana – Paumacaryu has been composed by Svayambhu by about the 8th Century A.D. which has been rendered from Apabhramsa Language into English for the convenience of the readers.