Column | The monkeys of Jain Ramayana

A bus from Satana, in Nashik district of Maharashtra, takes you to two rock pinnacles standing side by side like a pair of raised thumbs. These are the Mangi-Tungi peaks, each over 4,000 feet. Most pilgrims who climb them are Digambara Jains. They come because of a single Prakrit verse. According to the Nirvana Kanda, Rama, Sugriva, and Hanuman attained nirvana here.

So, the vanaras of the Ramayana did not end with Kishkindha. In Jain memory, they ended up as naked monks on a hill in Maharashtra. On Tungi, there are old images of Hanuman, Gava, Gavaksha and Nila, and one cave has Rama’s army chief Kritantavakra shown as an ascetic. Rama’s soldiers are carved in the posture of men who have given up war. These caves were carved 900 years ago by Rajput patrons of Jain faith.

The twin peaks of Mangi-Tungi in Maharashtra. | Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

In the Valmiki Ramayana, the vanaras are forest creatures with tails, born on purpose to help a god. The Bala Kanda (sarga 17) says Brahma told the devas to father monkey sons as an army for Vishnu-as-Rama. Vali is Indra’s son, Sugriva is Surya’s son, Hanuman is born to Anjana, through Vayu (Kishkindha Kanda, sarga 66).

The Jains rejected this. In Vimalasuri’s Paumachariya, the oldest Jain Rama story (its date is unsettled, somewhere between the 1st and 5th centuries CE), vanaras are vidyadharas: humans who know magic sciences and fly in vimanas. A prince named Srikantha receives an island full of monkeys from his ally, the king of Lanka. He likes them and puts them on his flags and crowns. His line becomes the Vanaravamsha, the monkey clan. Ravana’s line is the Rakshasavamsha. Same people, different badges. No tails, no gods.