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 55

22
Pravacanasara
[p. 23:] PRAKRIT DIALECT AS AN EVIDENCE FOR THE DATE PROPOSED.-Though not a sure evidence, the stage of Prakrit also is, at times, used to indicate the age of an author; this dialectal evidence, so far as I am aware of the peculiar inherent traits and geographical and circumstantial handicaps of Prakrits, cannot be of an absolute character, but merely a cumulative one. In the section on the Prakrit dialect of Pravacanasara it is indicated, after a through analysis of the grammatical facts from the gathas of Pravacanasara, that the stage of Prakrit, as represented by these gathās, is earlier than that of the Prakrit portions, as critically analysed by Dr. Jacobi, of Natyalästra of Bharata. The date of Natyadastra is a matter of uncertainty; possibly it is anterior to Bhasa and Kalidasa and usually, therefore, it is assigned to the beginning of the second century A. D. or so. This is quite in keeping with our conclusion that Kundakunda might have flourished at the beginning of the Christian era. The appearance of Apabhramsa forms is also considered to have some chronological utility. It is shown, in the discussion about the Prakrit dialect, that not a single Apabhraméa form is traced in Pravacanasära; that possibly indicates a period when Prakrits had not developed as yet the Apabhraméa traces. Now Paumacariya of Vimalasūri, which should be placed at the beginning of the Christian era according to the statement of the author himself,1 shows many forms which can be called Apabhraméa in the terminology of Hemacandra. kunda possibly belongs to an earlier period; making concession to geographical limitations that Kundakunda belonged to the extreme south etc., this also favours our relegation of Kundakunda to the beginning of the Christian era.
DOMICILE ETC. IN THE LIGHT OF THE DATE PROPOSED.---The domicile of Kundakunda will have to be sought in South India, especially in Dravida country, from the spelling of his name, Kondakunda,2 from the fact that he is called the preeminent leader of the Müla-sangha, and from his being and associated with Dravida-sangha. Considering the probability of his association with the Pallava dynasty, his activities might lie round about Conjeevaram, which was [p. 24:] a cultural centre, in the South, in the early centuries of the Christian era. The time, when Kundakunda flourished, appears to be sufficiently critical so far as the upkeep of the Jaina community in the South was concerned. After the arrival of Bhadrabāhu, a fresh impetus must have been given to Jainism in the South, and attempts must have been made to get royal patronage etc. to put Jainism on sound basis by
group of Jaina Literature. The interpretation of the commentator should not be attributed to Kundakunda. When the Merkara copper plates of Saka 388 refer to Kundakundänvaya and mention half a dozen teachers belonging to that lineage, it is impossible that Kundakunda can be put after Saka 380, and that he might be referring to the work of Sarvanandi.
1 On internal evidences that Vimalasuri was acquainted with Greek astronomy etc. Dr. Jacobi doubts the date given by the author, and would put him in the third century A. D., or even somewhat later.
2 Quite recently it is reported in a Jaina Kannada Magazine, Vivekābhyudaya, I, 3-4, p. 54, that there is a village, Kondakundi, some four or five miles away from Guntkal Railway station, associated with the life of Kundakunda; a couple of furlongs away from that village there is a cave, with some Jaina idols, where Kundakunda is said to have performed his penances.