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PRAVACANASẢRA. kunda. Mere similarity in name can hardly be the ground for identification, because many: Jaina saints and teachers have borne the same name at different times. The history of Jaina salighas, gayas and 'gacchas is still an obscure tract which urgently needs some light, and with regard to the gaṇa etc. of Kundakunda there is no reliable information. 'The traditional lists of teachers belonging to Drāvida-sarigha, Nandi-gana and Arungalānvaya, and of Mūlasangha, Des'i-gaṇa, Kundakundānvaya and Pustaka-gaccha, Vakra-gaccha or Sarasvatī-gacchá include, at the beginning, the name of Kundakunda with reverence. Kundakunda is looked upon as a preeminent leader of the Mūlasarigha,+ a designation claimed by the Digambaras in view of the division of the Jaina church into Digambaras and S'vetāmbaras, The oft mention of Kundakundānvaya, which is repeatedly met with in various lines of teachers, clearly indicates that a spiritual lineage of Jaina teachers was started sometime after Kundakunda.
2. KUNDAKUNDA'S DATE OUR APPROACH TO THE PROBLEM.-The most important and baffling problem is that about the date of Kundakunda, which, though handled by some scholars, still requires judicious consideration after relative evaluation of various literary and epigraphic records. To start with, it is necessary to take a resumé of the various opinions with evidences advanced by different scholars.
THE TRADITIONAL DATE OF KUNDAKUNDA.-The traditional view, current among the Jainas, which is represented by some pontifical lists, says that Kundakunda succeeded to the pontifical chair in V. saạyat 49, i. e. about 8 B. C., at the age of 33, remained a teacher for about 52 years and passed away at the age of about 85; the details about the years vary in different MSS. of pattāvalīs, MS. E of a pattāvalī, noted by Hoernle, gives 149 V. saņvat, 1. e., 92 A. D., as the year of his accession to the pontifical chair. According to another tradition, incorporated in a verse of unknown authorship quoted in Vidvaj-jana-bodhaka, Kundakunda flourished (jātah) in 770 after Vīra, i. e., 243 A. D.; the verse expresses, rather in a vague manner, that Kundakunda was a contemporary of Umāsyāti. It is the first tradition that is more popular and current.
1 See the opening remarks of my paper on "S'ubhacandra and his Prakrit grammar in the
Annals of the B. O. R. I., Vol. XIII, i. 2 See my paper on "Yāpaniya-sangha' in the Journal of the University of romi
1, part vi. 3 I give here only a few important epigraphic references, chronologically
which Kundakunda's association with different ganas etc. is seen: E.O., III, 35, 3F E. C., II, 127, 69, 117, 140; E. C., VIII, Nagar No. 37; E. C., II, 64, 66; E. Hultzs
South Indian Inscriptions Vol. I, No. 152.; D. C., II, 254, 258.; etc. 4 E, C., II, 69: s'rimato vardhamūnasya Vardhamanasya s'usane /
s'ri-Kondakunda nümabhūn Alūla-samghāgrani gani // 5 See I. 4., XXI, p. 57 etc. 6 See Stāni Samantabhadra' by Pt. Jugalkishore, p. 147; the verso runs thus :
varse sapta-s'ate cairo saptatyä сa dismitar / Umāsvāni-munir jalah Kundakundas tathaiva call --
