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INTRODUCING JAINISM
India, does not supply us concrete evidence on the existence of Jainism in South India. The Jains also claini that the authors of Tolkāppiyam and Kural are their adherents. The dates of some works, such as, Yasodharakāvya, Silappadikāram, Jivakacintāmaņi and Nilakesi, though Jain in origin and contents, are uncertain. But it is supposed that they must be dated before the seventh century A.D. But the doctrines of Jainism as depicted in the Manimēkhalai, which mentions the Digambara Jain monks, are fairly accurate.54
Though the early history of Jainism in the South is obscure, their later history supports the prosperous state of Jainism in South India. In the town of Kāñci, Jainism was at its height.55 Kundakunda, the famous Digambara writer, also honoured by the Svetāmbaras, belonging to the first century A.D. wrote several philosophical treatises. All of his works, available so far, are in the Sauraseni Prakrit. Three of his works-Samayasāra, Pravacanasāra and Pañcāstikāya, commonly known as Nāțaka-traya or Sāratraya (cf. the Prasthāna-traya of the Vedānta Philosophy) are studied with great zeal by Jain scholars. Kundakunda is very popular in the South Indian Jaina tradition. These three works are commented upon in Sanskrit by Amrtacandra (about the close of the 10th cent. A.D.) and by Jayasena (12th cent. A.D.) and in Kannada by Bālacandra (13th cent. A.D.). Padmaprabha Maladhārideva (died A.D. 1185) wrote a Sanskrit commentary on the Niyamasāra. After Kundakunda the name of Sarvanandin can be mentioned. When Simhavarman was the ruler of Kāñci, Sarvanandin, a Jain scholar, wrote his Prakrit work Lokavibhāga in 458 A.D.56
The Digambara Jaina author Samantabhadra (1st half of the 8th cent. A.D.) at the time of Kumārilabhatta belonged to Kāñci. He wrote a commentary on Umāsvāti's Tattvārthādhigama-sūtra. The introduction to this commentary, is entitled Devāgama-stotraor Aptamīmāmsā.
54. Ibid., III, p. 413. 55. Ibid., III, p. 413. 56. Ibid., III, p. 413.
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