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APOROPOS OF KONDAKUNDA-ANVAYA
HAMPA NAGARAJAIAH
An inscription of C.E. 950 from Kurkyäla, a village in Andhra Pradesh has the following details :
On the holy-rock (siddha sile) to the north of Vṛṣabhagiri, an age old natural Jaina seat of pilgrimage, anādi samsiddhatirtha, Jinavallabha, younger brother of Pampa (C.E. 941), a poet-laureate, caused many images of his family deities, a basadi called Tribhuvana tilaka, a tank called kavita gunarnava and a garden called madana vilāsa. Jinavallabha, proficient in Kannada, Sanskrit and Telugu languages, a lay votary of Jayanandi siddhanta bhaṭāra, a friar of Pandarangavalli, who belonged to Desiga gana and Potthagebali of Kondakunde. Potthagebali is another alias of Sarsvati gaccha olim Pustaka (Postaka) gaccha or Śāradā gaccha.
It is significant to note that the usual Kondakunda anvaya is referred here as Kondakundeya. Kondakunde is only a place name and not a personal name. The inscription says that Desiga gana of Kondakunde is a place. There are other epigraphical references to this hallowed place. It is at this Kondakundeya tirtha that Nälikabbe, a lady votary, caused a Caṭṭa Jinalaya for the merit of her husband; Joyimarasa, a mahāmaṇḍaleśvara under Vikramadityadeva VI (10761126), the Kalyāṇa Calukya emperor, endowed the temple with certain gifts (specified) [SII, IX-i. No. 150 C.E. 1081, konakondla. p. 132].
In the light of the above two illustrations, the meaning of the phrase Kondakundanvaya needs reconsideration. So far, the usual and established explanation offered to Kondakundānvaya is that it is the lineage tradition of monks who belong to Kondakunda school of philosophy. The etymology of the noun form Kondakunda has been discussed by early scholars. Accordingly, it is a Dravidian compound word (konda+kunda), both the words denoting the same meaning of 'a habitat near the hill', a place where the great acarya Padmanandi was born. In course of time, Kondakundacārya (an ācārya from of Kondakunda) had become one of the aliases of the same ascetic Padmanandi. Even after due consideration to this etymology, primary meaning of the word Kondakunda(e) remains to be a place name.
Kondakundanvaya may mean either the anvaya of the place called Kondakunde, or the anvaya of the Kondakunda acarya. But, the
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