KhotAnese

Source: TW

Among the many regional variants of the Rāmāyaṇa, the Khotanese version is very interesting.

Maheśvara bestows on a Brāhmaṇa a jewel and a cow for all necessities of life, who then takes a wife and settles down. Many years later, the king Daśaratha, called Sahasrabāhu “the thousand-armed” here, on a hunt, carries off the wish-granting cow.

Reduced to misery, the Brāhmaṇa with his son goes around begging, until one day the son makes his way to the mountains and performs austerities. Brahmā then bestows upon him an axe, and the boy takes the name of Paraśurāma. He then slays Daśaratha/Sahasrabāhu and then goes on a rampage against the Kṣatriyas.

Two of Sahasrabāhu’s sons—bhagavān Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa—are hidden under the earth by the queen, thus saved. Coming of age, they seek revenge. A fierce battle between the two, bhagavān Rāma—here the son of Sahasrabāhu—slays Paraśurāma, avenging his father.

The story continues pretty much similar to Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, albeit with some modifications. After the battle of Lanka - Rāvaṇa, known as Daśagriva, isn’t killed, agreeing to pay tribute, he is left unharmed.

Then follows the Buddhist identification of the personages. Bhagavān Rāma as Buddha, Lakṣmaṇa as Maitreya. Rāvaṇa turns himself to the Buddha and receives instructions on Dharma.

A Buddhist retelling of the Epic, it woves two different tales into one, with a visible partisan view of a rivalry, where Paraśurāma “who exalted the Brāhmaṇas” is slain by a quintessential Kṣatriya of the Hindu tradition, by the son of Sahasrabāhu, by the Buddha.

A classic example of the tAthAgatan resentment towards v1s driving neo-mythmaking. - MT