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before it can make sense of its religious expression, must search for authentic human existence. This existence in the human form which Jainism cherishes most for the final liberation thus becomes a part of the philosophical discourse on which Kundakunda explains in his works. According to Prof. A. Chakravarti, Kundakunda appears to have acquainted with the Upanisadic thought," and the famous Vedantist Sankara was acquainted with the works of Kundakunda and Amṛatacandra as he uses distinction between the vyāvahārika and paramārthika point of view. Furthermore, the adhyasa, a technical term used to denote the confusion between self and non-self- a confusion due to avidya, is not found in any of the philosophical writings prior to Sankara, and probably he used this concept of Amratacandra, who was senior to him and who freely used it in his commentary called Ātmakhyāti on Samayasāra. More over, Śankara's Śāriraka Bhāṣya is similar to the language of Ātmakhyāti.30
The Works
Kundakunda is known for revolutionizing earlier literary concepts through his work. In his works, he does not mention any of the previous Jain writers, but his works contain allusions to non-Jain matters and these points only establish his antiquity. The most wellknown works are:
Samayasāra, Pravacanasāra, Pañcāstikāyasāra - these three together are also known as Prabhṛtatraya or Sāratrya. These three major works have been commented upon in Sanskrit by Amṛtacandra (close of 10th C.E.), Jayasena (1150-1200 C.E.) and in Kannada by Bāļacandra (1176 C.E.). Other Sanskrit commentaries by Prabhācandra (980-1065 C.E.) and Mallisena are reported on some or the other of the Prabhṛtatraya. Amṛtacandra is concerned more with the exposition of the contents in a high-flown style while Jayasena interprets the text word for word and adds some observations here and there. Balacandra mostly follows Jayasena.3
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1. Samayasāra is the most important philosophical work dealing with the nature of the self, the term Samaya being used synonymously with Atman.32 Amṛtacandra has a commentary called Atmakhyāti on this
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