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86
Paramåtma-prakasa
and svetāmbara monks. There was also one śvetāmbara Maladhāri Hemacandra to be distinguished from the encyclopediac author Hemacandra (A.D. 1089-1173).1
Date of Maladhare Balacandra-Beyond calling himself Kukkuțāsana Maladhāre this Bālacandra supplies no information about himself; and hence to settle his date is all the more difficult. Maladhārideva or Kukkutāsana Maladhārideva occurs in some inscriptions at Śravana Belgo! as a personal name. But there is no doubt that it is a designation with the name of our Bālacandra; perhaps it is the name of a famous preceptor used by the monks of that line. Turning to epigraphic records one Balendu (Balendu?) Maladhārideva is mentioned in Amarapuram Pillar Inscription of Saka 1200 (A.D. 1278) in which some pupils have given a donation to a Jaina temple. Our Balacandra cannot be identified with this Bālendu though in personal names indu and candra are often interchanged, because the title Kukkuțāsana is not found there and because this date of Bälendu is rather too early for our commentator.3 About the period of our author, the earlier limit is definite that he flourished after Brahmadeva whose commentary he follows; nd we have tentatively put Brahmadeva in the 13th century AD. We will have to take into consideration the conditions of travelling etc. in the 13th century. Bālacandra belongs to Karņātaka, possibly he lived near about Sravaņa Belgol. Brahmadeva in all probability belongs to the North. So we can expect naturally a difference of half a century at least between the two, so that the Sk. commentary of Brahmadeva might reach the hands of Bālacandra. Thus tentatively Bālacandra might be put in the middle of the 14th century A. D.
Adhyatmi Balacandra's Commentary-None of these three Kannada commentaries can be attributed to Adhyātmi Balacandra (c. beginning of the 13th century) to whom a Kannada commentary on P-prakása is attributed by Mm. R. Narasimhacharya. He kindly informs me that he possesses no more details than those recorded in Kavicaritě. It is not at all improbable that Adhyātmi Bālacandra might have written a Kannada commentary like his commentaries on the Prākrit works of Kundakunda; but one should not be dogmatic
1
2
Epigraphia Carnatica, Vol. II. Peterson : Reports VoI, IV.p. 140 ff, V. p. 85, etc., C.D. Dalal and L. B. Gandhi : Catalogue of Mss. in Jesalmere Bhandars (G. O S.) pp. 3, 8, 15, 18, 36, etc.; M. D. Desai : (Jaina Sahityano Itihasa (in Gujarati), p. 244 ff. M. S. R. Ayyangar and B. S. Rao: Studies in South Indian Jainism, part II, pp. 42, 45 and 50. A Guerinot in his Répertoire D' Epigraphie Jaina mentions one Balacandra Maladhari; but the Hire-Avali inscription (E. Carnatica, VIII, sorab No 117) which he refers to reads Maracandra which, I think, is perhaps a mistake for Rāmacandra. I am thankful to Pt. D. L. Narasimhachar, Mysore. who kindly pointed out this error to me.
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