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13
Tattvārthasūtra Commentaries
of Karnataka
KAMALA HAMPANA
It is often said, and rightly so, that all the Tirthankaras are born in the north and most of the ācāryas are born in the south of India. This meaningful statement has more relevance in the context of Umāsvāti and his Tattvārthasūtra. This primordial canonical text gathered more momentum, wide currency and greater commentaries in Karnataka; some of the major and early commentaries are from Karnataka; the significant and exhaustive commentaries of Karnataka belong to Digambara sect. Paradoxically, the problems involved in the issue of the author-ship also come from the documents of Karnataka. Most of the inscriptional references on Tattvārthasūtra are also from Karnataka. Thus it is obvious that Karnataka has added more fuel to the ongoing debate on Umāsvāti and his magnum opus Tattvārthasūtra. It is with this in background that the present paper attempts to introduce some of the commentaries from Karnataka with special reference to the commentaries in Kannada language.
The early commentaries of Samantabhadra (not extant), Pūjyapada, Akalankadeva and Śrutamuni are in Sanskrit. Much has been said and discussed on the overall significance of the
