Jinamanjari 1998 04 No 17

Author(s): Jinamanjari
Publisher: Canada Bramhi Jain Society Publication

Page 42

3. Māghanandin-I was born in 85 B.C.E. in a Sāh caste and died on the fifth day of the month of April in the year 17 B.C.E. He became the pontiff in 21 B.C.E. and held the position for over four years.
4. Jinacandra - I was born in 73 B.C.E. and died on the ninth of September in the year 8 B.C.E. He was a householder for over 24 years and practiced asceticism for thirty-two years becoming the pontiff in the year 17 B.C.E.17
The socio-religious activities of the Jains in South India during the middle of the First B.C.E., appeared to be well patronized, as noted earlier, by kings, feudatories and the merchant class alike. Kundakunda, the fourth of the lineage after minor-Angin, BhadrabāhuII, emerges marking the dawn of an reenergized philosophical activity in the history of Jainism in the south. Thus, Kundakunda was the most important and influential person in decent to preside over the mūlasangha, before its split into Digambaras and Svetambaras.
From the Patļāvalis, we learn that Kundakunda was the youngest and the junior contemporary of Bhadrabāhu et al in the mūlasangha. Thus, he had a very good opportunity for an astute studentship under the able training of his teachers, Bhadrabāhu to Jinacandra-1, who had samadhi marana (pious death) in the year 13 B.C.E. We also learn that Kundakunda, at an young age of 11, entered the Jain ascetic order in the year 41 B.C.E. when Jinacandra-I was the pontiff of the order. He underwent rigorous training in the study of scriptures, penance and other ascetic practices for 33 years under the watchful eyes of his revered ascetic congregation.
Accession to the Pontificacy
Becoming an acārya, Kundakunda was made pontiff of the mūlasangha by his immediate teacher Jinacandra in 8 B.C.E. According to the Pattāvalis, he was forty-four years old at the time, According to Prof. A. Chakravarti, Kundakunda became the chief of the múlasangha or the Dramilasangha at Tiruppappuliyur, a suburb of Cuddalore which is famous as Southern Pāțalīputra. During the Pontificacy, he successfully established the superiority of Jain scriptures, and thus, he has been meritoriously immortalized as a highly
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