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Kannada Literature/115
significance of Dhavalā Tīkā that appeared in the Rāstrakūta eon, needs a brief introduction of its background. Therefore, with an intention of facilitating the novice, following material is provided.
5.3.1. The volume of Jaina-āgama, canonical literature that developed in Sanskrit and Kannada, in Karņāțaka is very vast and can not be reviewed here in its entirety, except noting the names of the major authors/commentators. The literature of syādvāda philosophy, the doctrine of qualified assertion, takes off from the great Umāsvāti's Tattvārthasūtra, the best known digest among the manuals of Jainism. There are three score and more commentaries on this ancient primordial text. So far published portion itself covers over 5000 pages. The early commentaries were in prose and the verse was yet to follow.
5.3.1. The task of writing comm. on Tattvārtha-sūtra, refining and restating the doctrines enunciated earlier, went on slowly but steadily from generation to generation. The most significant and best known works in the later derivative literature are from Karņāțaka. Umāsvāti is held in high regard by the Nirgranthologists, and Tattvārthasūtra has widely influenced for over a thousand years. Gandha-hastimahābhāsya, the earliest and fore runner of the commentaries, attributed to Samantabhadradēva is not extant, but some of the later authors have sought in their own way to determine the size of the lost text as of 96,000 verses.
5.3.1.2. Among the extant works, outstanding being the classic expositions of Pūjyapāda, Akalanka and Vidyānanda. These esteemed and elaborate commentaries are in Sanskrit. The period between C. E. 350-950 was the age of many celebrated commentaries by eloquent scholars. The learned pontiffs in the reign of the Ganga kings had scholar pupil who became authors of repute.
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