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PRAVACANASARA,
Punyāsrava-kathā, wherein, he says, it is cited as an illustration of s'āstradana. In short the story runs thus: In the town of Kurumarai, in the district of Pidatha năḍu, in Dakṣiņa-des'a of Bharata-khanda, there lived a wealthy merchant Karamunda with his wife S'rimati. They had a cow-herd, Mathivaran by name, that tended their cattle. Once that boy, to his great surprise, happened to see a few trees in the centre with green foliage, when the whole forest was being consumed by conflagration. The boy inspected the spot; he found there a residence of a monk and a box containing agamas, to the presence of which he, as a credulous boy, attributed the exemption of that spot from fire. He carried those texts home and worshipped them daily putting them on a sacred spot. Once a religious monk visited the house; the merchant offered food, and this boy offered these texts; for these acts of piety the master and the boy received blessings from the Monk. The master had no issues, and it so happened that the faithful boy died and was born as a son to him. As time passed on, this intelligent son became a great philosopher and religious teacher, Kundakunda by name. Further, Professor Chakravarti simply refers to other incidents such as the report, Kundakunda as the wisest man, in the Samavasarana (i. e. the religious assembly) of S'rimandhara-svāmi, the visit of two caraṇa saints to have it verified, his indifference to them, their consequent return with disgust, the misunderstanding cleared and lastly Kundakunda's visit to Srimandhara-svami in the Purva-videha country. The merit of the s'astra-dāna made him 'a great leader of thought and organiser of institutions. Finally he secured the throne of Acarya and. thus spent his life in usefulness and glory'.2
VI
1 With a view to verify the details, I consulted the Marathi ovi version of Punyāsrava (composed in S'aka 1739), which is based on the Kanarese Punyasrava of Nagaraja, composed in 1331 A. D., but I was not able to trace the story. I do not know whether Prof. Chakravarti has in view the Sanskrit Punyasrava, which Nagaraja says to have rendered into Kanarese. Possibly the spellings of some proper names would even indicate that he has before him some Tamil or such source. I learn from Prof. Hiralal that this story is not traceable in the Hindi translation of the Sanskrit Punyasravakathakos'a of Ramacandra Mumuksu. (Translated by Pt. Premi, Bombay, 1907).
2 In this context, I cannot stand the temptation of summarising here another story fr Aradhana Katha-kos'a (Ed. Bombay, Vira samvat 2442; part 3, Story No. 111), of Brah Nemidatta which also illustrates the fruit of s'astra-dana, and which, because of similarity in names, is likely to be misunderstood as the story of Kundakunda, with whom, in fact, it has hardly to do anything; the first part of Prof. Chakrava practically agrees with this. In Bharata-kşetra, in the village of Kuru was a cow-herd Govinda by name. Once he saw, in a forest-cave, a text; he took it and offered the same with devótion to a great and res Padmanandi by name. The peculiarity of the text was that so many g had handled and explained it, but ultimately had put it in that cave. J the saint Padmanandi also puts that Text again there. The cowworshipped that Text all the while; one day he was killed by a tiger his death, as the consequence of his remunerative hankering (nidāno the son of a village headman. He grew up quite happily into an atti he was reminded of his former birth after meeting Padmanandi; he order and practised severe penances. After his death he was born Irrespective of the pleasures available, somehow he felt disgusted pleasures and entered the order. He worshipped Jina and waited
