सीयाहरण रासु (Sīyāharaṇa‑Rāsu)
By Harivallabh Chunilal Bhayani
Summary
The Hindi–Sanskrit section "सीयाहरण‑रासु" reproduces and comments on an early Rajasthani narrative poem attributed to the Jain poet Śrī Dhanyaśrī (or Bāparcandra) and edited by Professor Harilal‑Bhai M. Bhavnani. The title literally means "The Poem of Siyā’s Abduction" and relates an episode from the Jain retelling of the Rāmāyaṇa in which the demon king Rāvaṇa abducts Sītā. The article opens with a prologue (प्रास्ताविक) explaining that the poem survives in a 20‑folio palm‑leaf manuscript dated Vikrama Saṃvat 1507 (A.D. 1451) held in the Vijayanand Jaina Granthamālā at Bharata. The editor summarises the poem’s plot: Sītā (here named Siyā), wife of Rāma, is kidnapped by the demon king Rāvaṇa after Rāma rejects the overtures of the sister of his brother Lakṣmaṇa; Hanumān discovers Siyā in Laṅkā; and Rāma later rescues her with the help of an army of monkeys. The body of the article presents the Devanagari text of the poem with each stanza numbered and accompanied by footnotes identifying variant readings from other manuscripts and explaining obscure words. Many verses are preceded by descriptive headings indicating the metre or rasa (mood), such as candravālī or rāma‑rāvaṇa‑saṃvāda. The editor occasionally inserts commentary to clarify mythological allusions and to note that some passages closely parallel verses in the Pāñcarātra and Bhāgavatapurāṇa. Because the manuscript is damaged in places, some stanzas are reconstructed from parallel texts; these reconstructions are marked by brackets and explained in the notes. The article also includes citations to earlier Hindi literary historians who have discussed the poem and provides a glossary of archaic vocabulary. Overall, the edition brings to light a little‑known Jain version of the Sītā‑haran episode and situates it within the broader corpus of medieval Rajasthani and Gujarati rāsas.
Conclusion
By publishing the text and notes of "सीयाहरण‑रासु," the editor preserves an important witness to the Jain appropriation of the Rāmāyaṇa story and to the development of vernacular narrative poetry in western India. The poem’s mixture of Prakrit and Old Hindi forms, along with its Jain theological inflections, illustrates how medieval poets adapted pan‑Indian epics for sectarian audiences. The extensive critical apparatus, including variant readings and explanatory comments, will aid future scholars in assessing the poem’s linguistic and literary significance. This edition thus contributes to a more complete understanding of regional Ramayana traditions.