Jain Journal 1992 10

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

Page 43

OCTOBER, 1992
Karamunda. Yativar was also in the audience. After listening to the discourse, Yativar offered to the Muni the Sastra which he had salvaged from the forest. On account of these gifts-food from the Master and the scriptures from the servant--the Muni was very much pleased and blessed them both. The Master of the house who was issueless, was to have an intelligent son and old and faithful servant would be born as the promised son of the house. The happy event came to pass. Yativar was reborn in his next birth as the son of Karamunda and Śrimati. He was christened as Kaundes and received his education from Śrutasagar Muni. Before Śrutasagar left for his heavenly abode, he had admitted Kaundeś in the order of Munis with his formula of initiation: Simandharaya Namaḥ. Kaundeś inherited his preceptor's water-bowl and peacock-feather broom (pichi).
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The newly initiated Muni Kaundeś later on came to be called Kundakunda. Throughout his life, he continued to chant his formula of initiation Simandharaya Namaḥ.
There is another version to this formula of initiation :
According to Jaina Cosmology, the terra firma (Jambudvipa) is divided into six segments-Bharata, Airavata, and Videha, with two antipodes of each. In the first two segments, there are twenty-four Tirthankaras in the fourth cycle of time (Duṣamā-Suṣamā), But in the Videha Kṣetra, there are twenty Tirthankaras in every cycle of time.
Kundakundacārya lived in Bharata Kṣetra in which we all live. There was a lingering doubt in the mind of Kundakundācārya which none in Bharata Kṣetra could dispel. A colleague of Kundakundācārya in his pervious birth, became a Deva in the next birth. To dispel the doubt, the Deva physically transported Kundakundacārya to Videha Kṣetra. The first Tirthankara of Videha Kṣetra, Simandhara, gave audience to Kundakundācārya and cleared the cloud in his mind. Thus enlightened, Kundakundacārya was brought back to Bharata Kṣetra by the Deva. Kundakundācārya was deeply beholden to Simandhara Svami for having lead him to right Belief and Right Conduct. In token of his respect and gratitude, Kundakundācārya constantly chanted the name of the Tirthankara-Simandharaya Namaḥ.
At the time of Bhadrabahu there was a terrible famine in the north. Bhadrabahu took a large body of ascetics with him and migrated to the South. The Pandya Kings of the South were Jainas from very