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· Kondakundācārya's Birth Place.
By Dr. B. A. SALETORE, M. A., D. Litt. Ahmedabad, {मो० डॉ० भास्कर आनन्द सालेतोरेने मस्त लेखमें श्री कुन्दकन्दाचार्यजी के जन्मस्थान पर प्रकाश डाला है। शिलालेखोंके माधारसे यह मद्रास मान्तके गुंटुकल रेल स्टेशनसे चार पात्र मील दूर स्थित कोनकुतल या कोनकनल नामको उनका जन्मस्थान बताते हैं। आचार्यश्री का जन्मस्थान होने के कारण वह स्थान तीर्थ माना गया था। सन् १०८१ के लेखसे स्पष्ट है कि महामंडलेश्वर जोगिम्मध्यरसने कोन्डकुन्देयतार्थमें स्थित बा जिनालयको दान दिया था। इसी मदिरके लिये सन् १०८८ में महामहलेवर चिक्करसने दान दिया था। ऐसे उल्लेखोंसे कोन्डकुड या कोनकुनल स्थानही सभवतः आचार्य श्रीका जन्मस्थान है। -का.प्र.]
One of the most famous dames ja eariy Jaina history is that of Kondakundācārya. His date is still unsettled, but it is believed that he lived in the first century. A, D, Scholars like Venkayya and Ramaswamı have rightly pointed out that he hailed from Kodakuntala or Kondakunda, or KonaLonala, a village about four or five miles from the Guntakal railway station in the Madras Province. I have shown elsewhere that this Dame KondaLunda is essentially Kanneda" In this paper I shall show that this place was of some consequence, both from the administrative as well as the religious points of view it rightly came to be called a tirtha or a holy place, many centuries after the time of Kondakundācārya, evidently because of the fact that that great teacher had been born these That the birth place of a great place was reckoned to be a tirtha or a kşetta has been shown by me in another context, where I have proped that the birth place of the great Vais. Tava teacher Anandatirtha better known as Madhavācārya, has likewise ever been reckoned to be a holy place by the followers of this great Vaişnava teacher. The place is called Pājakaksetra wbile the place where he spent ass boyhood is called Danda-tirtha. Concerning the birth place of Kondakundācārya, I may add that the remarks which follows are based on five stope Lecriptions which were accessible to me long after the publication of my
Work on Jatnism.
The earliest stone inscription about the birth place of the great Jaina teacher is dated In A D 1059.60. It was found in the Bhogeśvara temple at Donekallu, Gooty täluka, Anantapur district, Madras Province it infarms us that in the reign of the Western Cālukya monarch Tribhuvanangalla Deva, an expedition was led to the south by that monarch At that time Sankarasa was governing from Kondakunde ( Kondakundeya-maneya Sanka
1. Read Saletore, Mediacoal Jainism, Op 226, d.(3)-228. 2 Read Saletore, Ancient Kamätaka, pp 416 ff
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