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 42

Introduction
nothing can be said definitely from this floating tradition; but, by the by, it may be noted that Subhacandra (c. 1516-56 A.D.) also refers to this in his Pāndavapuräna, 1 and the same is noted in a gurvāvali too.2
SPIRITUAL PARENTAGE ETC. of KUNDAKUNDA--Kundakunda is silent about his spiritual parentage in the sense in which the later authors have given their spiritual genealogy: at the end of Bodha-pāhuda he mentions that it is composed by the sięya of Bhadraāhu, but more on this point later. Inscriptions, too, in this context, are not of much help. According to the gurvāvali of Nandi-sangha, Kundakunda was the successor of Jinacandra, the successor of Māghanandi from whom the pattāvali of Nandi-sangha begins;3 but too much reliance on this pattāvali to the extent of saying that Kundakunda was the pupil of Jinacandra is hardly warranted. Jayasena, in the opening remarks of his commentary on Pañcāstikāya, says that Kundakunda was the sisya of Kumāranandi Siddhāntadeva. Nothing is known about this Kumāranandi. The Mathura inscription mentions one Kumāranandi of Uccanāgarī sākhă; and another Kumāranandi is mentioned in Devarahalli inscription of 776 A.D.5 Vidyānanda, in his Patraparikṣā, quotes three verses from the work Vādanyāya of one Kumāranandi Bhattāraka. But none of these, in the absence of any clue, can be identified with the guru of Kundakunda. [p. 10:] Mere similarity in name can hardly be the ground for identification, because many Jaina saints and teachers have borne the same name at different times. The history of Jaina sanghas, ganas and gacchas is still an obscure tract which urgently needs some light, and with regard to the gana etc. of Kundakunda there is no reliable information. The traditional lists of teachers belonging to Drāvida-sangha, Nandi-gana and Arungalānvaya, and of Mūlasangha, Desi-gana, Kundakundānvaya and Pustaka-gaccha, Vakra-gaccha or Sarasvati-gaccha include, at the beginning, the name of Kundakunda with reverence.9 Kundakunda is looked upon as a preeminent leader of the Mūla
1 Kundakunda-gani yenojjayanta-girl-mastake /
so' vatād vădită Brāhmi pāşāna-ghatitā kalau // 2 Padmanandi-gurur jāto Balātkāra-ganágranih /
pāşāna-ghatitā yena vāditā sri Sarasvati //, quoted in Jaina Hitaishi, Vol. X, p. 382. 3 pade tadiye muni-mānya-vittau Jinādicandraḥ samabhūd atandrah/
tato' bhavat pañca sunāma-dhāmā sri-Padmanandi muni-cakravarti II, see p. 3 of the
Introduction to the Ed. of Samayasāra-prābhrtam, Benares, 1914. 4 E.I., I. No. xliii, No. 13, pp. 388-9. 5 E.C., IV, Nagamangala No. 85; also I. A., II, pp. 155-61. 6 See Patrapariksā, p. 3 (Ed. Benares 1913); also see his Pramānaparikṣā, p. 72 (Ed. Benares
1914). 7 See the opening remarks of my paper on Subhacandra and his Prakrit grammar in the
Annals of the B. O. R. I., Vol. XIII, i. 8 See my paper on 'Yapaniya-sangha' in the Journal of the University of Bombay, Vol. I,
part vi. 9 I give here only a few important epigraphic references, chronologically arranged, in which
Kundakunda's association with different ganas etc. is seen: E.C., VIII, 35, 36.; E.C., II, 127, 69, 117 140; E.C., VIII, Nagar No. 37; E.C., II, 64, 66; E. Huitzsch: South Indian Inscriptions Vol. I, No. 152.; E.C., II, 254, 258.; etc.