Jainism and Karnataka Culture

Author(s): S R Sharma
Publisher: Karnataka Historical Research Society Dharwar

Page 98

JAINISM AND KARNATAKA CULTURE
Anuvêkkha. He is supposed to have composed in all no less than 84, but the above works are the only ones now extant. They are all written in Prākṛt akin to Śaūrasêni, and copies of these works are to be found in almost all South Indian Jaina libraries. Later writers wrote elaborate commentaries on these, both in Sanskrit and in the vernaculars, often departing from the spirit of the original as pointed out by Peterson in the case of Śrutasagara's Satprabhṛta-tikā, from which we have cited elsewhere a passage bearing on the salvation of women, Peterson has also remarked that although Kundakunda's is a noted name among the Digambaras, the Svetambaras also quote him with respect and say that he stood at the dividing line of the two churches and was largely responsible for the Digambara heresy." According to Mr. Hiralal, on the other hand, it is certain that he lived at the time the Digambara and Svetambara split had already taken place, for more than once he criticises the Svetambaras with regard to salvation of women; in support of which statement he quotes the line
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'चित्ते चिंता माया तम्हा तासि ण निव्वाणं'
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from Pravacanasara, and also adds, in the satpähuda there are many gāthās which prohibit to woman the adoption of the rigid course of conduct, e.g. verses 23 and 24 of Suttāpāhuda." The date assigned to him in the Paṭṭāvalis is 49 V. S. or about the end of the 1st cent. B. C. The following verses. from the Pancastikāyasāra indicate Kundakunda's true outlook regarding self-purification and the traditional mode of attaining salvation:
"The person who has reverence and devotion towards Arhanta, Siddha, their images, Samgha and congregations, will
5 Br. Sitalprasadji points out: " Only Santasagar has gone outside the real text of. Astapahuda somewhere, but not all other commentators like Amritachandra, Jayasena, Padmaprabha, Malharideva."
6 Peterson, Report on San. MSS II, p. 83.
7 Hiralal, op. cit., p. vii.
8 Cf. Hoerale, Pattavalis of the Saraswati Gachcha, Ind. Ant. XX, P. 341.