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94 Harmless Souls He goes on to argue that even if this plate were a genuine copy of an older record, by assigning twenty-five years to each of the six monks named, the earliest, Guņacandra, would not be before 325 C.E. So, on the basis of Pūjyapāda quoting from the Bārasa-Aņuvekkhā, Chatterjee assigns Kundakunda to the fourth century C.E. He remarks, however, that 'the anvaya of Kundakunda appears only in the records of South India, which were inscribed after 900 A.D.'. 16
Even if the Mercara copper plate were genuine, it only shows that there was an ācārya called Kundakunda, it does not indicate that the works we have that are ascribed to 'Kundakunda' are, either in toto or in part, necessarily by this particular teacher. Indeed, as Upadhye points out, 17 the only mention of Kundakunda's name in any of the works attributed to him is in the last gāthā of the BārasaAņuvekkhā, a verse which is not even found in some manuscripts. 18 Moreover, Amstacandra, his first extant commentator (c. tenth century C.E.) does not mention Kundakunda's name, and it is only with Jayasena (twelfth century C.E.) that a firm attribution is made.
Third, the linguistic evidence is highly approximate and largely depends upon unsure relative dating. It clearly needs much further research, but even then it would be unlikely to yield any chronological certainty.19 Schubring, however, in his article 'Kundakunda echt und unecht',20 compares the form and style of the Atthapāhuậa collection of texts (which are attributed to Kundakunda) with the form and style of other texts, particularly the Samayasāra. By
16 Chatterjee p. 325. 17 Upadhye p. ii. 18 See ibid. p. xl.
19 See F.W. Thomas, intro. to Faddegon's trans. (Kundakunda (3)] 1935, p. xix. Thomas puts Kundakunda in the third or fourth century C.E.; cf. P.S. Jaini, JPP p. 79, who favours the second or third century. See also Frauwallner 1973, p. 183 - fourth century C.E., Caillat 1987, p.508, dates Kundakunda to the first century C.E. without comment.
20 Schubring 1957, pp. 537-574.
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