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JAIN JOURNAL: VOL-XLVIII, NO. 1-IV JULY 2013-JUNE 2014
in obscurity and shrouded with traditions to have a glimpse of this great person. The early history of India is but a string of speculations and even as such there are very many gaps. Under these circumstances, we have to be very cautious about the history of our author. After many discussions a group of scholars decided Ist century A.D. for the kundakunda's period.
All the works of sri kundakunda are in prakrit verse. But it is easy and beautiful. Prabhṛtatraya or nāṭaka, i.e., the trilogy of pancastikāyasāra, pravacanasāra, and samayasara or samayasāra-prabhṛta. Also Niyamasāra, Astapāhud, Rayaṇsāra; Bāraha Aṇuvekkha are the best creations of kundkund.
He belongs to the Mulasangh order. His proper name was Padmanandi, He is popularly referred to as Kundakunda because he was born in a place nemed Kundakunda in south India. Although he is closely associated with the Digamber sect his books have become popular among the Swetamber also in recent decades. For the digamber, his name has auspiciuos significane and occupies third place after Bagavan Mahavir and Gautam gandhara in the sacred litanyManglam bhagwan veero, Manglam Gautmogani. Manglam Kundakundadyo,
Jain Dharmostu Manglam..
3. The Pravacansar :
Pravacansar is a sacred work belonging to the Dravayanuyoga group of the digamber jain literature. It is divided in three chapters named Jnanadhikara, Jnayadhikara and Caritradhikara. It is to be attributed to Kundakunda himself because each chapter has its contents systematically shaped in a self sufficient manner but still not althogether dis connected with the remaining two chapters. There are total 275 Gathas (Prakrit poetic text) in which 92 gathas are in chapter 1, 108 gathas are in the chapter 2 and 75 gathas are in the chapter 3 according to tattvadeepika Sanskrit commentary by Acharya Amritachandra.