Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c9.226

c9.226

5). *Different readings of Rāmāyaṇa.* In various parts of India three original texts or readings are found of the original Rāmāyaṇa. In each of the three texts nearly 1/3 of the portions differ from one another. The Bombay text is popular in northern and southern India. The second is the Bengal text. The third, the Kashmir text, is popular in the north-western parts of India. The inference to be made from the existence of these three different texts is that the original epic was composed in a Prākṛta language, which was most popular at the time and that it was later translated into Sanskrit by different persons at different times. This theory will explain the existence of the different texts. For many years it continued to be handed down from mouth to month till it assumed written form in Sanskrit.