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Corpus Cundacundae
By Prof. Natalia This book is the first research essay in the Russian Indology, dedicated to Kundakunda's doctrine- one of the most authoritative representiatives of the Digambara trend of the Jainism. Jain tradition attributes to Kundakunda, or Kundakundacharya, about 84 treatises, which Iunite under the term Corpus Cundacundae. In this book all texts of the Corpus Cundacundae are considered as an united entity (because the Jain tradition takes them as one author's treatises). But at the same time I understand clearly that probably all these text belonged to different authors and even compilated in different ages. The analysis of Kundakunda's doctrine is based on 4 main philosophical and relgious texts: Pravacanasara-"Essence of the doctrine's exposition", Pancastikaya-sara- "Essence of the doctrine's of five extended substances";Niyama-sara-"Essence of the abstinence's doctrine", Samaya-sara- "Essence of the Teaching".
The monograph is devoted to examining a number of problems related to the Corpus Cundacundae: (1) the proper names under which the Digambara teacher is known in the Jaina tradition" (2) the traditional lives of Kundakunda in the two extant versions:, (3) the teachers' tradition of Kundakunda, connected with Bhadrabahu, the last jaina "master of the scripture;" (4) the dating of the life and activites of Kundakunda himself, where, based on an analysis of the scholarly literature on the history of Jainis, the author provisionally singles out two "strategies," within the frame work of which attempts can be made to establish the probable date of Kundakunda. The First approach is based on the analysis of historical, inluding epigraphical, materials: the earliest mentions of Kundakunda, lists of teachers, the commentatorial tradition, etc. This "strategy" is adhered to by the overwhelming majority of historians of Jainism when they make attempts to substantiate their hypotheses. Within the framwork of this "strategy" based on the study of sources external in relation to Kundakundaa himself-one may make the cautious supposition that the time of Kundakunda;s flourishing was approximately the 2nd 3rd cc. A.D. The second approach is based on the analysis of texts attributed to Kundakunda himself. This strategy" finds its partial reflection in the works
