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 37

Pravacanasāra
karma by name, on the first three sections of Satkhandāgama. Besides we know of one more Helācārya, perhaps a provincial pronunciation of the name Elācārya, a master of māntric lore, of Drāvida-gana, a resident of Hemagrāma in the South. He was mainly responsible for the contents of Jvālināmata, a tāntric work, composed, mainly based on the old work of Helācārya, by Indranandi Yogindra in S'aka 861 i.e. 939 A.D.1 From the way in which Indranandi speaks of Helācārya it appears that Helācārya lived pretty long before, though there is no evidence to identify him with the teacher of Virasena referred to above. That Kundakunda had a name Elācārya must remain unproved till some other evidence or independent tradition is coming forth, because the wholesale genuineness of the tradition that Kunda kunda had five names has been suspected to be of doubtful authenticity as seen from the attribution of the name of Vakragriva to Kundakunda.
GRDHRAPICCHA AS A NAME OF KUNDAKUNDA DISCUSSED.--Now the last name Gệdhrapiccha. It is learnt from Sravana Belgola inscriptions, ranging from 1115 to 1398 A.D., that Grdhrapiccha was another name of Umāsvāti, the author of Tattvārthasūtra;2 and some of these inscriptions indicate that at times the name Grdhrapiccha was enough to mention Umāsvāti, of whom, therefore, Grdhrapiccha might have been a very popular name. In some of these records the name of Umāsvāti, with the other name Grdhrapiccha, comes immediately after the mention of Kundakunda's name. If Grdhrapiccha was a name also of Kundakunda, or if it was a name common to both Kundakunda and Umāsvāti, we expect that the inscriptions, in the ordinary course, should have referred to that. There was some speciality in Umāsvāti's being called Grdhrapiccha, and that has been referred to in a Sravana Belgola inscription of 1433 A.D.: the great saint Umāsvāti belonged to the holy family of Kundakunda, and being expert in all the dogmas he compressed the range of Jaina doctrines in Sūtras; as a saint particular about the protection of living beings, he carried, as the report goes (kila), vulture-feathers; and since that day he came to be known among the wise people, as Gșdhrapicchācārya.3 The name should not be looked upon as queer at all, because there have been Jaina authors bearing the names Balākapicchao and Mayūrapiccha,5 the first especially was a direct disciple of Umāsvāti. [p. 5:] There are other epigraphic records in which sometimes the name Grdhrapiccha alone and sometimes Umāsvāti? alone is mentioned. Thus there appears to be no doubt that Grdhra piccha was the name of Umāsvāti.8 It is through lack of proper information or through mis-information that the tradition, viz., Kundakunda had a name Gạdhrapiccha, appears to have been current possibly from the last quarter of
1 See Anekānta vol. I, p. 427 etc.; Catalogue of Sanskrit and Prakrit Mss. in C. P. and Berar,
Intro. p. XXIX. 2 E. C., II, 127, 117, 140, 64, 66 and 254. 3 E. C., VI, 258. 4 E, C., II, 64, 66 etc. 5 E. C., II, 258; also the introductory verses of Kanarese Dharma-pariksā, wherein all the three
Grdhra- Balaka- and Mayūra-piccha are mentioned. 6 EC., IV, Nagamangala No. 76. 7 E.C., VII, Nagar No. 46. 8 In Dhavala commentary we get a line: Giddhapicchāiriya-payāsida-Taccattha-sutte /