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XXIV
PRAVACANASĀRA.
a cultural centre, in the South, in the early centuries of the Christian era. The time, when Kundakunda' flourished, appears to be sufficiently critical so far as the upkeep of the Jaina community in the South was concerned. After the arrival of Bhadrabahu, a fresh impetus must have been given to Jainism in the South, and attempts must have been made to get royal patronage etc. to put Jainism on sound basis by conversions as we see from the traditional stories associated with Samantabhadra and Akalanka, The task before Kundakunda must have been really a great one. The Digambaras had denounced the Jaina canon as formed at Pāṭaliputra by Svetămbaras after the famine in Magadha was over; and by about the beginning of the Christian era, so far as the Digambara Text-tradition was concerned, the important texts, as a whole, had fallen into oblivion. Kundakunda had to respond to the religious needs of the community; and to meet this situation he must have composed small tracts in Prakrit mainly based on whatever traditional text-knowledge was inherited from early teachers. The traditional aspect of Kundakunda's works is clear from the fact that his works have some common verses with some texts of the S'vetambara canon; being a common property in early days they have been preserved by both the sections independently. On the one hand Kundakunda stands as the converging centre of early text-tradition and on the other his works themselves have given rise to commentaries and commentators thus diverging into a budding and exhuberent growth of Jaina dogmatic discussions of various kinds.
3. KUNDAKUNDA'S WORKS
KUNDAKUNDA AS THE AUTHOR OF 84 PAHUDAS.-Kundakunda has a great halo of literary activity, and the tradition attributes to him not less than eighty four treatises called Pahudas or Prabhṛtas. The title pahuḍa, a present, indicates, according to one interpretation, that these books are composed or compiled with a spiritual purpose, and they are merely devotional presents to the Higher Self; Jayasena explains the word thus: yatha ko'pi Devadattal raja-dars'anartham kimcit särabhutam vastu rājñe dadāti tat prabhṛtam bha nyate tatha paramātmārādhaka-purusasya nirdoşi-paramātma-rāja-dars'anärtham idamapi s'astram prabhṛtam /. This is how commentators are skilful in giving certain meanings. The real traditional meaning appears to he different: Pähuda means an adhikara, i. e. a section in which a particula is treated or discussed. Some S'vetambara works, too, have this desi for instance, Joni-pahuḍa, Siddha-pahu das etc. That Kundakunda Pahuḍas is merely a floating tradition, and I am not aware of any statement to that effect from his commentators etc. The number is not at all incredible
2
1 See his commentary on Samayasara, p. 555-6 (RJS edition); elsewhere, on p. 5, ho interprets Samaya-pahuḍa thus: prabhṛtam sāram surah s'uddhavasthi samayasyalmanaḥ prabhṛtam samayaprabhṛtam athava samaya cva prabhṛtam ].
2 See Gommatasura Jivakända, gathā 341 (SBJ V): ahiyaro pahudayam cyattho i, e. adhikara and pahuda are synonyms,
3 Jaina Granthavali, pp. 62 & 66.
