발미끼의 『라마야나』와 스와얌부의 『빠움 짜리우』에 나타난 라반상

Abstract

Vālmīki’s Rāmāyaṇa and Svayambhū’s Paumcariu are literary works that have their origin in the Indian tradition of the Rāma’s story, the Rāmakathā. Vālmīki had composed the first epic, Rāmāyaṇa which narrated the whole life of Rāma by compiling into one work the scattered verses relating to the heroic life of Rāma in the 4th or 5th century B.C. Thereafter the story of Rāma became very popular with the masses in India and as a result many other literary works or epics were composed on the model of Vālmīki’s Rāmāyaṇa. Svayambhū’s Paumcariu is one of the other literary works or epics while at the same time it is one of Rāma’s Stories in Jainism which had the rich tradition of accepting Vālmīki’s Rāmāyaṇa critically. The characters in Svayambhū’s Paumcariu, based on the Jain tradition of Rāma’s Stories, were quite varied from those in Vālmīki’s Rāmāyaṇa with which the mass of Indian people had been very well acquainted. It was the variation in the character of Rāvaṇa, traditionally regarded as type of demonical character, which attracted my interest. The main purpose of writing this paper is to bring to light the reason for the variation in the character of Rāvaṇa in Paumcariu of Svayambhū by comparatively analyzing the image of Rāvaṇa in Vālmīki’s Rāmāyaṇa with that occurring in Svayambhū’s Paumcariu. Rāvaṇa in Vālmīki’s Rāmāyaṇa is created as the king of demons to be subsequently eliminated by Rāma. But considering the contrast in the descriptions of Rāvaṇa and the context, Rāvaṇa in Vālmīki’s Rāmāyaṇa can be esteemed as a king who followed the dharma of Kshatriya (warrior) faithfully. This aspect of his character had been subdued by the emphasis on his demonical character. On the other hand, the demonical character of Rāvaṇa was excluded in the process of incorporating Rāma’s story in the Jain Purāṇa. So Rāvaṇa in Svayambhū’s Paumcariu is not a king of demons but one of the mightiest kings of his time and a pious Jain, but he represented a typical character with crucial human weakness which he was not able to control. Rāvaṇa in both the works can be considered as a tragic hero who had a decisive flaw in his character that became the cause of his ruin. However, the character of Rāvaṇa in Vālmīki’s Rāmāyaṇa is complicated and many faceted because the main reason for his ruin is typical of the character of a kshatriya (warrior) and this got concealed by in demonical aspects of his character. On the other hand the Rāvaṇa in Svayambhū’s Paumcariu is simple and linear because the story of Rāvaṇa’s ruin is presented as a good case for the teaching of the Jain concept of brahmacarya. The overall image of Rāvaṇa in Rāmāyaṇa differs from that of Rāvaṇa in Paumcariu due to the different purpose of writing and the peculiar traits of the two works. Rāmāyaṇa is an ancient epic emphasizing moral teaching by adapting the structure of Good and Evil especially because the present version of Rāmāyaṇa is strongly influenced by the idea of incarnation. Therefore Rāvaṇa in Rāmāyaṇa is described as the type of demonical character who destroyed the Dharma even though he was faithful to the Dharma of the kshatriya (warrior). On the other hand, the epical structure of Good and Evil of the Rāmāyaṇa was transformed into a triangular construction in Paumcariu based on the concept of Baladeva, Vāsudeva and Prativāsudeva in Jainism, and specially because the purport of Paumcariu was to spread and to teach Jainism as mentioned earlier. So the Rāvaṇa in Paumcariu is described as the type of person who has a human weakness in spite of being a powerful king.