Written in Sanskrit verses in the 12th century by the scholar monk Hemacandra, the Triṣaṣṭi-śalākā-puruṣa-caritra – Lives of the 63 Illustrious Great Men – is a key Śvetāmbara work. It is the standard version of the legends of the 24 Jinas, 12 Cakravartins, 9 Bala-devas, 9 Vāsu-devas and 9 Prativāsu-devas. Ten books long, it is a large epic comparable to the Hindu Purāṇas in its perspective. 

There are manuscripts comprising copies of all ten books. Some of these books, however, have an independent life. The best-known instances are the first one, which tells the life of the first Jina, Ṛṣabha, and the last one, which recounts the life of the last Jina, Mahāvīra. The seventh book, which provides what can be called a Jain Rāmāyaṇa, also forms a unit of its own. This is the text found in this manuscript.

Several Jain authors have given their version of the Jain Rāmāyaṇa in Prakrit or Sanskrit since the beginning of the common era. The originality of the Jain Rāmāyaṇa is that all the main heroes of the epic are integrated within the frame of Jain mythology – what Western scholars call 'Universal History'. In Hemacandra’s words, it starts:

Herein are related the lives of Baladeva Padma, of Viṣṇu Nārāyaṇa, and of Prativiṣṇu Rāvaṇa, whose births took place in the congregation of Śrī Suvrata Svāmin whose complexion was the color of antimony, the moon of the Hari-line

Johnson 

1954, page 107

The introduction underlines the following points about the Jain Rāmāyaṇa:

• the heroes are contemporaries of Munisuvrata, the 20th Jina
• the main heroes are connected with the last three groups of the illustrious men of Jain mythology since Rāma is a Baladeva, Lakṣmaṇa a Vāsudeva and Rāvaṇa a Prativāsudeva
• Rāvaṇa’s main enemy is Lakṣmaṇa, not Rāma as in the Hindu Rāmāyaṇa, and since Lakṣmaṇa is the one who kills Rāma he and Rāvaṇa form a pair of enemies
• Rāma is known as Padma, which is visible in the titles of many Jain Rāmāyaṇas, such as the first known version, the Prakrit-language Pauma-cariya by Vimala-sūri, the Sanskrit Padma-carita and the Pauma-cariu in Apabhraṃśa.

Beside these main points, other specific features about the Jain Rāmāyaṇa are that:

• the rākṣasas are not demons or ogres, but are vidyādharas – figures with magic powers – who can be converted to Jain teachings
• all the heroes are subject to the principle of rebirth
• the authors of several versions attack the inconsistencies, fantasies or irrationalities in the legends of the Rāmāyaṇas that 'others' have written in prologues given a rather ironical tone
• episodes implying murder, violenceand so on are either suppressed or transformed.

The result is that Jain Rāmāyaṇas are manifestos of Jainism through both the ways in which the stories are told and the discussions of Jain principles inserted in the tales. Since the heroes are Jain devotees or observe Jain ethical principles, the atmosphere is totally different from the Hindu Rāmāyaṇas.

In this manuscript Hemacandra’s Jaina Rāmāyaṇa is divided into ten chapters as follows:

Chapters of Hemacandra’s Jaina Rāmāyaṇa

Chapter number	Chapter title	Ends on this manuscript page
1	Origin of the rākṣasas’ lineage and of the monkeys’ lineage	6 verso
2	Rāvaṇa’s expedition of conquest	27 verso
3	Hanuman’s birth and Varuṇa’s subjection	35 verso
4	The birth, marriage and retreat to the forest of Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa	53 recto
5	The kidnapping of Sītā	68 verso
6	Bringing news of Sītā	82 verso
7	The killing of Rāvaṇa	96 recto
8	The abandonment of Sītā	107 verso
9	Sītā’s purification and taking of the vow	115 verso
10	Rāma’s emancipation	124 verso