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 41

Pravacanusāra
tradition (prasiddha-kathā-nyāyena) that Kundakunda had personally gone to Pūrva-videha, paid his respects to Srimandhara-svāmi and received enlightenment. Turning to Inscriptions from Sravana Belgola, most of them belonging to the 12th century A.D. or so, we learn that Kundakunda, being possessed of exceellent religious conduct, was endowed with miraculous power to move in the air, 1 and that he moved in the air four fingers above the ground.2 A poetical explanation of his miraculous ability is given that he was not touched in the least, internally and externally, by the dust (of passion), the earth being the abode of dust.3 Thus the available epigraphical records mention only his miraculous ability, and they are silent about his visit to Videha land. The Śravaņa Belgoļa Inscription of 1128 A.D. describes Kundakunda as a bee to the beautiful lotus-hands of căranas; this indicates some association of Kundakunda with caranas. The tradition attributes a visit to Videha land not only in the case of Kundakunda but to Umāsvāti and Pūjyapāda also. With reference to Umāsvāti as well it is said that once he went to Videha land through his miraculous power to walk in the air to have his doubts on Jaina Siddhānta cleared from Srimandhara Tirthankara. On the way his peacock-feather-bunch fell down; then he took the feathers of a vulture flying in the sky and had his purpose served; therefore he came to be known as Grdhrapiccha.4 Devacandra (1770-1841 A.D.), in his Rājāvali-kathe, gives a similar account with reference to Pūjyapāda with the difference that he could walk over to Videha land because of the power of a medicament pasted to his feet.5 In some of the inscriptions Pūjyapāda is glorified as a great miraculous physician worshipped even by sylvan (p. 9] deities. A S. Belgola inscription of 7th July 1432 A.D. refers to the above tradition that the limbs of Pujyapāda were purified by his obeisance to the Jina in Videha-kşetra.? The authenticity of this tradition becomes of a doubtful value because of its indiscriminative attribution to Kundakunda, Umāsväti and Pujyapāda. It is seen above that Kundakunda and Umāsvāti are often confused; and here, with reference to this tradition, Pūjyapāda is added to their list. The epigraphic evidence in this context is very meagre, and the S. Belgola inscription of 1432 A.D. has to say that it is Pūjyapāda who visited the Videha land. At any rate I am tempted to point out to the third gāthā of Prayacanasāra as the genesis or the fruitful source of the tradition that Kundakunda saluted from here Srimandhara in Videha land and that he consequently visited that country; there, in that gāthā, he pays obeisance to the contemporary Arahantas in the Mānuşa region.
As to his dispute with Svetāmbaras on the mount Girnar and the consequent admission of Brāhmi that the Nirgrantha creed of Digambaras was true,
1 E.C., II, 127, 117, 140, 64, 66 etc. 2 E.C., II, 351. 3 E.C., II, 354 of 1398 A.D. 4 See p. 3 of the Introduction to the Ed. of Tattvärtha-blokavārtikam, Bombay, 1918. 5 See Karnāțaka Kavicarite, Vol. I, p. 7; further, the tradition tells that Pujyapāda, on his
way back, lost his eyesight due to the burning heat of sun-shine, but he could recover his
eyesigh by composing Sant yastaka, in honour of Säntesvara, at Bankäpura. 6 E.C., II, 64, 254 etc. 7 E.C., II, 258.