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 35

Pravacanasāra
Gțdhrapiccha (also spelt piñcha).1 Then a pattāvali of Nandi-sangha of uncertain date records the same five names for Kundakunda.2 Hoernle also notes from a MS., in the course of his comparative study of Digambara pattāvalis, that Kundakunda had these five names. The actual dates of these pontifical lists may come as late as the fifteenth century; still one might presume with confidence that portions of their contents might be sufficiently old, though none can say how much. Then Srutasāgara, who flourished about the close of the fifteenth century A.D.,4 in the concluding colophons of the Sanskrit commentary on six-pāhudas of Kundakunda, 5 mentions these five names of our author exactly as enumerated above. Kundakunda himself is completely silent on his names to such an extent that he does not mention his name even in his works excepting at the end of Bārasa-anuvěkkha. His first commentator, Amộtacandra, so far as I know, is silent on this point. Jayasena, however, in the opening remarks on Pañcāstikāya, remarks that Padmanandi was another name of Kundakunda; and possibly he means the same, when he glorifies Paümaņamdi in the two concluding Prakrité verses at the end of his commentary on Samayasāra. Thus, so far as the evidences are before us, it appears that Padmanandi was another name of Kundakunda; and it is only from the fourteenth century onwards that we find the tradition current that he had five names. One would have accepted the tradition of his having five names, had it not been for the fact that some of these names are claimed by other authors, that some of them appear to have been independent individuals, and that the earlier inscriptions which give only two names, do not, at all, uphold the tradition of five names, and hence it is necessary to scrutinise these names individually and to see how far the tradition can be accepted as genuine.
VAKRAGRIVA AS A NAME OF KUNDAKUNDA DISCUSSED.—The name of Vakragriva, so far as I know, occurs first in an inscription of 1125 A.D. ; but the inscription does not give any information beyond the bare mention of Vakragrīvācārya in the line of teachers of Drāvila(da)-sangha and Arungaļānvaya.? The next mention is found in Sravana Belgola inscription of 1129 A.D.; it is a pretty long inscription containing much historical information. In the fifth verse we are told that Kondakunda deserves respect from all; that (p. 3:] his jasmine-like fame decorates various quarters; that he was a bee to the beautiful lotus-hands of the cāraņas, i.e., a class of spiritually advanced monks who could move in the air; and that he firmly
1 E. Hultzsch: South Indian Inscr., Vol. I, No. 152; Asiatic Researches XX, p. 36; see also
Indian Antiquary XXIII, p. 126; Guérinot takes Mahāmati also as a name, and thus Kundakunda appears to have six names according to him, see Reportoire D' Epigraphie Jaina, No.
585. 2 See Jaina Siddhānta Bhaskara, I. iv. 3 1. A., Vol. XXI, p. 74, foot-note No. 35. 4 See Annals of the B. O. R. I. ., vol. XII, p. 157. 5 The editions etc. of the works of Kundakunda will be given later under the discussion about
his works. 6 Throughout Prakrit stands for Prākrta and Sanskrit for Samsksta. 7 E. C., V, Channarayapatna No. 149. 8 E. C.,II. 67.