Jain Journal 1991 10

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 44

OCTOBER, 1991
127
In Karnataka also such a style evolved in the early centuries, of mixing Kannada instead of Sanskrit with Prakrit. Tumbalūrācārya (a 4C) wrote a Kannada commentary Cūdāmaņi on Ubhayasiddhānta and a Pañcikā; In total about 91 thousand verses (87+7). One more Cūdāmaņi was written by Srivardhadeva (a 4C) a work of 96 thousand verses. Another Ācārya Samakunda (a 4C) also wrote a commentary to Chakkhandägama and Kaşā yapāhuda containing 12.000 verses, using Kannada, Prakrit and Sanskrit languages. All these three commentaries have disappeared leaving no traces.
Prakrit continued to exercise its grip and command over the learned, including kings. Durvinita (555-605) of western Ganga dynasty, whose family religion was Jainism, is said to have written three works, one of them being Vaddakathā, which is supposed to be a faithful version of Guņādbya's Brhatkatha in Paiśāci. Durvinita's Vaddakatha is only next earliest work on Gunadhya's book after VH of Sangbadasa (6th century). Vaddakathā and a Tamil work Perungathai by a Jain author Konguvelir (9th century) represent southern recension of Gunadhaya's Brhatkathā. Durvinita was a disciple of Pujyapada, a distinguished Jain Ācārya.
Like Durvinita, another Ganga king Sivamära II (about 800) was versatile in Kannada, Sanskrit and Prakrit. He has written a sivamaramata or a Gajāşțaka and a Setubandha kāvya. There is a Prakrit Setubandha (rāvana vaho) attributed to Kalidasa or Pravarasepa (of Våkāțakavamsa). But some scholars and historians have expressed emphatically that the author of Prakrit Sethubanda is none but this Śivamara.
A study of Prakrit was a prerequisite to Jain writers, as some of the basic religious texts were in that language. Hence most of them were equally proficient in Prakrit as in Kannada. Some of the Kannada poets in their over enthusiasm to exhibit their knowledge of Prakrit have used gāhās in Kannada kā vyas. On account of this intimacy with Prakrit literature, Jain poets could open a new horizon to Kannada literature. So much was the influence of Prakrit that the author of Kavirājamārga (9th century) warns the Kannada poets to ward of the Prakrit temptation. It is possible that some of the Kannada works written earlier to Kavirājamārga, both in prose and in poetry, of which we have no access, might have borrowed or translated mainly Prakrit works.