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Chapter-iii PADMA-PURANA OF ACARYA RAVISENA
1. RAVISENA'S PERSONAL HISTORY
In the year 678 A.D. Ravisena wrote his Padma-Purana. It is composed in Sanskrit and consists of 123 Parvans (Cantos). It is mainly in Anustup metre. The poet observes the convention of introducing a change of metre in the last stanza (or stanzas) of each canto. He skilfully interweaves his name in the closing stanza of every canto of this poem whence the Padma-Purana is technically called the Ravyanka (marked by the word Ravi in a special way.)"
We know very little of Ravişena's life. His spiritual descent as recorded by him. (Canto CXXIII. 167) may be thus shown:
Indra-guru I
Diväkara-yati
1 Arhanmuni
I Lakṣmaṇasena
Ravişena
Ravisena makes no mention regarding his 'sangha', 'gana' or 'gaccha' or his place of birth etc. Pt. Premi infers from the name Ravisena that possibly he belonged to Sena-sangha. No other work he is said to have written. His Padma-Purana (or Padma-Carita) is the first work in Sanskrit as far as Jain Story-Literature is concerned.
1. The edition referred to in our study is that of Pandit Darbari Lala in M.D.J.G. Nos. 29-31 Another edition with Hindi translation by Pt. Pannalal Jain has since been published by Bharatiya Jnanapitha, New Delhi 110 001, in three volumes (1977-78).
Regarding the date of the composition of the work the poet says:
द्विशताभ्यधिके समासहखे समतीतेऽर्थ चतुर्थवर्षयुक्ते ।
जिन भास्कर वर्धमानसिद्धे चरितं पद्ममुनेरिदं निबद्धम् ॥
i. e. the work was written 1203 years and a half after the death of Mahavira (527 B.C.). Pandit Nathurama Premi mentions, perhaps inadvertently, V. S. 834 (instead of 734) as the date of composition of this work (See p. 1 of his Prakkathana to Vol. 29).
2. Cf. the Vimalanka-kavya of Vimala; or just as the Kiratarjuniya of Bharavi is Śryanka or Sisupalavadha of Magha is Lakṣmyanka.
