ジャイナ教における六十三偉人の形成とラーマ説話の関係

抄録

Jain Literature preserves major versions of the Rāma and Kṛṣṇa stories. Vimalasūri and other Jain authors wrote many Jain Rāma stories. The authors also referred to Kṛṣṇa stories in their works. But Kṛṣṇa was almost always one of the characters in Neminātha hagiographies.

Jain narratives brought in the Rāma and Kṛṣṇa stories as an essential part. There remains much work about the Jain Rāma story from the 5th century. Jain authors seem to have been keen to portray Rāma as Baladeva, who does not kill anybody and will reach enlightenment. Therefore, the role of killing Rāvaṇa shifted to Lakṣmaṇa in order that Rāma observe ahiṃsā. But other murders by Rāma were often overlooked by authors, although the ahiṃsā of Rāma was the most crucial element for the story.

Because of the inconsistency among Jain Rāma stories, this paper investigates the peculiarity of Rāma stories in Jain works, comparing them to the Kṛṣṇa story, which is very close to Neminātha.