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Kundakunda: The Pravacanasāra 93
different reasons to those traditionally advanced.9
In support of this, Upadhye offers some linguistic evidence, namely, that the Prakrit dialect used in the Pravacanasāra, for instance, seems to be earlier than that of the Prakrit portions of the Natyaśāstra of Bharata (usually assigned to the beginning of the second century C.E., but, as Upadhye admits, the date is uncertain).10 He also claims that not a single Apabhramsa form is traceable in the Pravacanasāra, possibly indicating a period when Prakrits had not yet developed Apabhramsa traces.11 (He has already noted the strong influence of Sanskrit on the Prakrit dialect of the Pravacanasāra dubbed 'Jaina
Śauraseni' by Pischel: e.g. it retains intervocalic 'c' and even 'p' at times; desi words are also conspicuously absent.)12
I see the following problems with Upadhye's arguments. First, the ascription of the Bārasa-Anuvekkhā to Kundakunda can itself only be made on traditional grounds. Furthermore, as Upadhye himself admits, 13 the text may be a compilation of traditional gāthās, and nothing in the content of the verses quoted by Pujyapada indicates that they are necessarily non-traditional material.14 Consequently, we do not know that Pūjyapāda is quoting from Kundakunda. On these grounds, even the upper limit is uncertain.
Second, the Mercara copper plate inscription is now considered to be a forgery of the eighth or ninth century. Chatterjee describes these plates as 'definitely spurious'.15
9
Cf. Keith's 1936 review (pp. 528-9) of Upadhye's edition of the Pravacanasara. He concludes from Upadhye's own evidence that Kundakunda 'may be placed not later than the fourth century A.D.', but how much earlier than that is not clear.
10 Upadhye p. xxiii. 11 Ibid.
12 See ibid. pp. cxx-cxxi, cxxiv.
13 Ibid.
p. xl.
14 See SS on TS 2:10.
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15 Chatterjee p.234, referring to Epigraphia Carnatica (revised ed.) 1972, Vol. I, Introduction pp. xf.
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