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GENERAL EDITORIAL
Kundakundācārya is an unquestioned authority on Jaina dogmatics; and his position, especially among the Jaina Teachers and Authors of the South, is unique. His very name has an auspicious significance, to be enumerated next only to that of Mahāvira and Gautama Ganadhara. All of his works are available in Prākrit which borders on Sauraseni and contains some traits of Ardha-māgadhi, and hence called Jains Sauraseni. Three of his major works : Pañcâstikāyasāra, Prayacanasāra and Samayasāra are called Nātaka-traya, Prābhịta-traya or Sára-traya reminding us of the term Prasthāna-traya of the Vedāntins. The Samayasāra is studied with great zeal among the Jainas; and its exposition by Amặtacandra has made it a fountain of religious inspiration, spiritual solace and universal appeal.
Kundakunda is so popular in the South Indian Jaina tradition that he is mentioned under different names. Some of the details about him need further verification and clarification. In all probability Padmanandi was his name; he came to be called Kundakunda or Kondakunda possibly from the place to which he belonged; and his name reached such an eminence that a line of Teachers originated from him, Kondakundānvaya by name.
Besides the Sāra-traya or Prābhrta-traya noted above, some more works ( all the available ones in Prākrit ) are attributed to him; The Satkhandāgamatīkā, Parikarma by name ( not available at present ); the Mülācāra (Kundakunda's name is mentioned in some Mss. as its author ); Ten Bhaktis in Prākrit (Titthayara-, Siddha-, Suda., Cäritta-, Anagāra-, Āyariya-, Nivvāņa- and Pañcaparamětthi-bhatti, to which we have to add perhaps Namdisara- and Samti-Bhattis available in prose passages ); Eight Pāhudas (Damsaņa-, Cāritta-, Sutta-, Bodha-, Bhāva., Mokkha., Limga-, Sila-Pāhuda ); Rayana-sāra (its authorship, still sub judice ); Bārasa-anuvěkkhā; and Niyamasära. Whether all these available works are composed by one and the same Kundakunda; or there were authors more than one bearing the name Kundakunda : this has to remain an open question so far as critical scholarship is concerned ( see for instance, W. Schubring : Kundakunda echt und unecht, ZDMG, 107, 3; Dec. 1957; here the full text of the Bodha-pāhuda is edited by him ). It is more or less accepted now that the Rayaņasāra, as the text stands today, cannot be attributed to Kundakunda, the author of the Prābhịta-traya.
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