Pravachanasara

SR No.: 003289
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: A N Upadhye
Publisher: Shrimad Rajchandra Ashram
Publication Year: 1964
Total Pages: 612
Language: Hindi, Sanskrit
Classification: Book_Devnagari
File Size: 16 MB

Page 134

Introduction
101
died on April 24, 1176 A.D., and he left behind him a great number of pupils of whom Meghacandra appears to be his pontifical successor, his other pupils being Maladharideva, Sridhara, Dāmanandi, Bhānukīrti, Bālacandra, Māghanandi, Prabhācandra, Padmanandi and Nemicandra.1 In all the lists of Nayakirti's disciples Bālacandra comes after Dāmanandi and Bhānukirti;2 sometimes Prabhācandra and Nemicandra are mentioned above Bālacandra.3 Bālacandra, though not the eldest disciple of Nayakirti, appears to have soon come into prominence; as a benevolent monk of severe ascetic discipline he is glorified in various inscriptions; many of his lay-disciples, male and female, constructed idols and built temples. 4 Acaladevi, the wife of the minister Candramauli, was his lay-disciple; she built a temple at ś. Be!gola; and Bāļacandra's name is reverentially mentioned in an inscription of 1182 A.D. which is a grant of a village Bammeyana-halli by the Hoysala king Vira Ballāļadeva at the request of Candramauli. Nāgadeva builds a nisidic in 1195 A.D. as an act of reverence in the memory of [p. 106:] departed Nayakirti; and in that inscription Bāļacandradeva is mentioned.? In 1231 A.D. Gõmmatasetti, a servant of Hoysaļa Sri Vira Narasimhadeva and a disciple of Adhyātmi Bālacandra (the pupil of Nayakīrti), made a grant of land for the worship of Gommaţadeva.8 Boppaņa Pandita, known as Sujanottamsa, wrote a beautiful Kannada prayer of Gommaţadeva; it is incorporated in an inscription at Belgola; and it was inscribed by direction of Bālacandra.9 These facts indicate that the place of Bālacandra's activity was round about Belgola.
DATE OF BALACANDRA. That Bāļacandra served Sāgaranandi (possibly one of the pupils of Nayakīrti) for spiritual realization, that he is mentioned after Dāmanandi and Bhānukirti and that he lived upto at least 1231 A.D. go to show that Bālacandra must have been comparatively young when Nayakirti died. So roughly the life of Bāļacandra can be circumscribed by the dates, 1176 and 1231 A.D. As he refers to his cultivation of self-realization, I am tempted to say that he might have written his commentaries at the close of his life. So the date of his commentaries might lie at the beginning of the 13th century A.D. to take the earliest period. Besides his commentaries on Kundakunda's works, he has written Kannada commentaries on Paramātma-prakāśa and T.-Sūtra, and has also composed some hymns of prayer.10
COMMENTARIES OF JAYASENA AND BĀĻACANDRA COMPARED.—Comparison of Bālacandra's commentaries with those of Jayasena is a question by itself, and it cannot be dealt with in a limited space at my disposal; so I shall confine myself only to their commentaries on Pravacanasāra. This comparison will reveal so
1 E.C. II, 66. 2 E.C. II, 36, 327, 33 and 335. 3 E.C. II, 326, 327. 4 E.C. II, 185, 193, 195, 198, 331 etc. 5 E.C. II, 327; V Channarayapattan No. 50. 6 For the significance of nisidi see my note in the Annals of the B.O.R.I. Vol. XIV, iii-iv,
p. 264. 7-8 E.C. II, 335, 186. 9 Ibidem 234. 10 Kavicarite I, p. 253.