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180 Studies in Umāsvāti
Digambara Author
6.1
Following is the quintessence of the argument advanced by the advocates of GP as a Digambara seer:
i. KKA, the illustrious Digambara monk was the teacher; the kernel of his works echo in TS.
ii. Eminent Digambara ācāryas like SB svāmi, PP Devanandi, Bhaa Akalankadeva, Vidyānanda have written the commentaries of TS.
iii. Celebrated Kannada authors of Digambara sect like Pampa, Camundaraya, Parsvapandita, Bhaa Akalanka have remembered GP with reference.
iv. Vidyānanda, a Digambara pontiff in his auto-comm. of Aptaparīkṣā refers to GP with great respect and goes to an extent of using the adjcetive of bhagavad. v. In the TS, chapter-IX, sūtra 9, nudity(nagnya) is also included in the list of twenty-two pariṣahas, visiting afflictions, variety of Samvaratatta which is the requisite of only a Digambara friar.
vi. Pujyapada (c. sixth to seventh century) and Śrutasāgaravarṇi in Sanskrit commentaries, and Balachandradeva (AD1150) in his Kannada comm., have referred to US as a 'Nirgrantha-ācāryavaram', the superior adept of Digambara monks, and an agamakuśalam.
6.2 Without a single exception all the Jain authors of Kannada literature, who have mentioned GP or US, have held the same belief.
Kannada Author's Tribute
7.1
TS is considered as embodying the essence of Jaina philosophy and symbolising the whole gamut of traditional knowledge. Vardhamānasvāmi, a friar who had mastered TS, is described in an inscription, as the moon causing to swell the ocean to Tattavartha [EC.11(R)380 (274) AD 1372, p. 244]; therefore the suffix - svāmi is also added to the monk.
