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Pravachanasara of Shri Kundakunda.
(A summary)
BY A. N. Upadhya, B.A.
FOREWORD. [Oriental scholars are not, in any way, unacquainted with Pravachanasara, one of the three famous works of Shri Kundakundacharya of immortal fame. Portions of it were published by the late Dr. Bhandarkar in his Reports on the search for Sanskrit Mss. (1883.84) and translated too in the same volume. Dr. Pischel has taken a grammatical notice of these extracts and has come to the conclusion, that the Prakrit dialect, in which Pravachanasara is written can be designated as Jaina Souraseni (Grammatik Der Prakrit-Sprachen p. 20). No doubt there is ample material for the philologist interested in Prakrit dialects in relation to modern vernaculars, but so far as I know, no critical text of Pravachanasara has been prepared by collating Mss. from different parts of India. Many various readings important from the point of Prakrit dialect have been preserved. in the commentary of Jayasena who very often enters into textual criticism.
Pravachanasara is a popular book. Amritachandra has written, on this work, a commentary in a dignified style and flowing fluency and some times studded with gemlike verses in Sanskrit. Jayasena also has written a lucid commentary on this work, both these Sanskrit commentaries have been published, along with the original text in the Rayachandra Jaina-sastramata. From an editorial note on page 117 of the above edition, we learn that there is a commentary by Prabhachandra. Pandita Bahubali Sarma tells me that he remembers to have seen a sanskrit commentary, on all the three works of Kundakunda, by Mallishena. There is a Kanarese commentary by Balachandra
deva on Pravachanasara and so far as I know, it is not published Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
