Jain Journal 1978 01

SR No.: 520049
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publication Year: 1978
Total Pages: 36
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, India_Jain Journal, & India
File Size: 2 MB

Page 19

JANUARY, 1978
A similar story is current in Karnataka. There is a hill near Tirthahalli of Shivamogga District and it is called as Kundadri. According to local tradition this hill was named after KKA. There is a legend that this Acarya stayed here for sometime and has left his footprints here after performing austerities. Apart from this there is an inscription which states that KKA performed austerities here. Besides this inscription, there is another by the side of the Parsvanatha Temple on the hill in which the letters are not clear but it is said that it bears the name of KKA.
95
With regard to this Kundadri hill there is a story which agrees with similar stories about the life of KKA. The story is: Once upon a time in a Jaina village near this Kundadri hill there lived a cow-herd boy. When a Jaina monk visited this place he presented him a palmleaf manuscript which he found on the hill. After his death he was reborn there and for the meritorious act of the previous life became wise and a seer. Subsequently he relinquished everything, climbed on the top of the hill and meditated. He was no other than our KKA.
This also is not convincing. In the first place footprints of Jaina monks can be found at a number of places. When the exact identity is not known, it is the usual practice to associate it with the name of some great personality. That may be the case here. So the oral tradition regarding his austerities on the hill cannot be accepted at its face value. Thirdly, the inscription is of later period, and the information it contains is also based perhaps on local tradition. As for the story, it can be brushed aside as such stories were composed only to show the fruits and merits of sastra däna.
Now regarding the name of the hill Kundadri. Here again I differ, though it sounds like the name of KKA. But to my mind, Kundadri has nothing to do with KK, except for the fact that there is a Jaina temple on the hill. Now, the word Kundadri is a compound word consisting of kunda+adri. Kunda is a Kannada (Dravidian) word and adri Sanskrit (Aryan) word meaning the same thing-a hill. It is like Malayagiri repeating the same word. Hence the similarity of KK and Kundadri is mere accidental.
Another suggestion is that KK's birth place was Konakondla of Ananthapur District in Andhra. Some scholars almost have accepted this as true but there are three different ways in which it is pronounced : Kondakunda, Kondakundi and Kondakunde. Here again two words of the same family of languages carrying the same meaning are combined. Konda in Telegu means 'a hill'. Its congener are in Kannada