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Śvetămbara Scholars on Kundakunda: An Appraisal
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Sagarmal's assertions are similar to some other Svetāmbara scholars, such as M.A. Dhaky, who feels that Kundakunda borrowed from Svetāmbara canons, Siddhasena, and also from Yapaniya. B.D. Bhatt claims that Kundakunda has borrowed from Nāgārjuna. According to Dhaky, if there are “strong parallelisms” between Kundakunda's Samayasāra on the one hand and Siddhasena's Sanmatiprakaraņa (Sanmati-tarka) on the other, it must be Kundakunda who must have borrowed from Siddhasena because Siddhasena preceded Kundakunda.
The most biased attitude in regard to Kundakunda seems to be held by Dhaky. He holds the view that the Digambara sect possessed no āgamas (canons) and disagrees with Upadhye that Kundakunda's Sauraseni Prakrit pertained/belonged "to the period when the āgamas were the common property of the Svetāmbara as well as the Digambaras”.!' Dhaky's criticism of Kundakunda's works, particularly Samayasāra
Based on his superficial reading of Kundakunda's Samayasăra and almost total neglect and ignorance about his other works, Dhaky holds several misperceptions about Kundakunda and mistakenly finds fault with his various concepts. These are:
1. Dhaky holds that in Samayasāra, Kundakunda “massively leaned toward the niscaya-naya” (the internal self-referential viewpoint), which Dhaky mistakenly translates as "absolutistic standpoint." Dhaky adds: “This naya(viewpoint), but not its profound implications, was known before, but its application was not done to the scale and extent by Siddhasena Divākara or even Mallavādī." Dhaky's criticism about massively leaning toward niscaya-naya falls to the ground against the considered opinion of Paul Dundas, who finds nothing wrong with Kundakunda's assertion that “inner state has precedence and condit
s precedence and conditions the outer” and praises Kundakunda for effecting balance between “excessive formalization and ritualisation of behavior" and "excessive interiorisation of values."12
In regard to Kundakunda's exposition of niscaya-naya and vyavahāra-naya, it is significant to note the remark of Acharya
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