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 49

Pravacanasara
Amga viyanam and calidasa-Puvvanga etc. at least at the hands of a contemporary of his, if Kundakunda were to be taken, as proposed by Pt. Jugalkishore, as his disciple; and the adjective suya-nāņi, in the light of the above adjectives, should be taken to mean, I think, as suyakevali. If Bhadrabahu referred to is the same as Śrutakevalin, it follows quite naturally that either Kundakunda must have been his contemporary in the 3rd century B. C., being his sigya, or the word igya must mean something else than a direct disciple. I am tempted to take the word sięya as a parampara-biaya, and this is not without a parallel elsewhere. With Jaina authors guru and disya do not necessarily mean direct and contemporary teachers and pupils, but might even mean parampara-guru and isya; sometimes the influence of some previous teacher is so overwhelming that later pupils like to mention him as their guru. For instance, Siddharşi, the author [p. 17:] of Upamitibhava-prapañcā-kathā (906 A.D.) calls Haribhadra as his dharmaprabodha-karo guruh; but it is proved by reliable evidences that they were not even contemporaries, Haribhadra having lived before the last quarter of the 8th century.1 To take another instance, Jayasena,the author of Pratisthāpāṭha, calls himself as Kundakundagra-Aisya, but from the scarcity of old Mss., from the contents and language of that work, and also from the absence of any early tradition to that effect that he was a contemporary of Kundakunda, one is forced to take Jayasena as the parampara-sisya of Kundakunda of venerable name. There are, however, circumstantial evidences why Kundakunda might have been tempted to call himself as the sisya of Bhadrabahu. Bhadrabahu was the great leader of a sangha, which he led to the South for its physical, moral and spiritual welfare, After the demise of Bhadrabähu his pupils and grand-pupils might have always looked upon him as the greatest teacher; and especially in the South, the ascetic community, being isolated, might have inherited all the religious knowledge ultimately from the great teacher Bhadrabahu. So it is no wonder, if Kundakunda, who was at the head of an isolated ascetic group in the distant South and who always remembered with reverence that whatever knowledge he had inherited was ultimately traceable to Bhadrabahu, called himself as the sisya i.e. the traditional pupil of Bhadrabahu in his works which are more of a compilatory character based on hereditary instruction than original compositions. But it may be asked why not take Kundakunda as the direct disciple of Bhadrabahu Śrutakevalin and put him in the 3rd century B. C. There are various difficulties: Kundakunda, as, in that case, we might expect does not figure in the lists of Angadharins; the word sisya is not enough to lead us to that conclusion, because, as shown above, it could be used in the sencse of a parampara-áiṣya; I am not aware of any piece of Jaina tradition, legendary or literary, which would give even the slightest support to put Kundakunda as the contemporary of Bhadrabahu Śrutakevalin; and the traditions, as they are available, go against this date of 3rd century B. C.
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1 Jaina Sahitya Samsodhaka, Vol. I, p. 21 etc.; Dr. Jacobi's Introduction to Samaranccakahā in Bibl. Ind. 1926.
2 Vasubindu Pratiṣṭhā-pāṭha Ed. Calcutta, 1925; the prasasti is also quoted in the introduction (p.9) of Samayaprabhṛtam, Benares, 1914; for other instances where siṣya means parampara-siṣya see Annals of the B. O. R. I. ., Vol. XV, pp. 84-85.