Religion and Culture of the Jains

Author(s): D C Sirkar
Publisher: University of Calcutta

Page 72

SM. R. CHAMPAKALAKSHMI
Sangam at Madurai.24 The above traditions have no basis, and there are more than one Jain teacher who bore the name Elācārya.25 There is hardly any proof that Kundakunda visited the Tamil country or that he became the Pontiff at Patalipura. It is also significant that the palm-leaf manuscrit (without heading) from the Vardhamāna temple at Tirupparuttikkunram giving a list of the principal propagators of dharma in the fifth age (dusama) as Mukhya-PañcamakālaDharma-pravartakas mentions Kundakunda and Helācārya as distinct from each other and places them as the sixth and fifth respectively in the line of propagators.26
Intimate association of the Jain gurus of Karņāțaka with the Tamil country seems to have begun only after Samantabhadra. He is generally accepted to have lived in the earlier part of the 2nd century A.D.27 But inscriptions mentioning him and recording his activities belong to a much later period, ranging from the beginning of the 12th century to the 15th century. In some of them, he is placed as Pontiff immediately after Kundakunda and, in others, his place is next to Balāka piñcca, a disciple of Kunda kunda ; but he was not the immediate disciple of Balākapiñcca.28 The palmleaf manuscript from Jina-Kāñci, mentioned above, speaks of Sāmantabhadra as the twentyfourth in the line of principal propagators, i.e., he is separated from Kundakunda by eighteen other Jain teachers.
Samantabhadra is known to have visited Kāñcīpura. A Sravaņa Belgola record of 1129 A.D.29 gives a graphic description of his career, stating that he visited several important cities including Pāțaliputra (probably Patna as it is
24 B. A. Saletore, op. cit., p. 53.
25 An Elācārya is mentioned in a late inscription of Saka 1655 (1733 A.D.) from Ponnūr in the North Arcot District (A. R. Ep., 1928-29, No. 416).
26 T. N. Ramachandran, op. cit., pp. 215-16. 27 B. A. Saletore, op. cit., p. 225.. 28 Ep. Carn., Vol. II, Nos. 64, 66-67 and 258. 29 Ibid., No. 67.