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PART III KUNDAKUNDA: THE PRAVACANASĀRA
4
Kundakunda: content and context
4.1 Kundakunda: primary sources and chronology
In this and the following part I shall examine two of the major Prākrit works ascribed to the Digambara ācārya Kundakunda, the Pravacanasāra and the Samayasāra.
Giving even an approximately accurate date to Kundakunda presents formidable problems. The revered and influential position he holds within the Digambara tradition only adds to the difficulties. Traditionally, two dates are ascribed to Kundakunda: the middle of the third century C.E. (fl. 243 C.E.), and the first half of the first century C.E., the latter being the more popular. Upadhye shows that the traditional evidence for these dates is drawn largely from much later commentators and is totally inadequate. Moreover, the idiosyncratic nature of some of Kundakunda's teaching in the context of the rest of the Jain tradition makes comparison with such texts as the Tattvārtha Sūtra unhelpful in this respect. And as we shall see, the nature of Kundakunda's texts is such - they are clearly compilations of older material held together by new philosophical and soteriological strategies - that it is difficult to remain confident that all or even any of them should be ascribed to a single author or redactor. Conversely, there are close enough thematic links between the Pravacanasāra and the Samayasāra to make it obvious that they originated in the same religious and philosophical milieu. They can, therefore, profitably be studied together.
The evidence for Kundakunda's date has been most
1 Upadhye 1935, p. xff.
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