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Kannada Literature / 121
marks an improtant stage of take off in the history of Kannada literature, though not even a fragment of this learned exposition has been traced so far. Pujyapada's Sarvartha-siddhi is one of the oldest commentaries, so far known from south India. The gloss has given unmsitakable evidence of the commentator's originality and dialectical skill, with a stress on the tenets of Digambara sect. On internal and external evidences, and on linguistic grounds, Pujyapada's work is assigned by critics to the period of C. E. 530-80 (it may be possible to bring down the peirod to an earlier date-is immaterial). Pujyapāda, supposed to be a preceptor of Durvinita, the Ganga king, has some more works to his credit. Samantabhadradēva and Akalanka-ācārya were keen controversialists and travelled incessantly to hold religious disputations, where as Pujyapada was mainly limited to his writing. His influence on Kannaḍa commentators is obvious. Divākaraṇandi (1060) and Bālacandradeva faithfully follow his sarvārtha-siddhi commentary.
5.3.5. While a gradual and constant development was taking place in the sphere of religion, a parallel growth could be seen in the domain of literature also, which saw a spring time efflorescence, during the period of tenth and eleventh centuries. Jaina literature of the eight and ninth centuries, except for the two extant work, is, for want of material, very vague. Regarding the content, contribution, significance and literary status of Jain a literature, an in extenso discussion will follow, which corroborate the flourishing state of Jainism in Karṇātaka. Since, frequent allusion to Punnāḍu, a Dravidian nomen equivalent to Sanskrit Punnāṭadeśa, occurs its location may be cleared in this context. Punnāța had included the area of the modern coimbatore Dt in Tamilnadu. Punnața was a part and parcel of Karṇāṭaka, and it was situated to the south-west region of Mysore Dt,
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