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Studies in Jatnology, Prakrit
some Kannada commentaries on them, which can be said to have been the earliest literary works in Kannada. None of these works is found mentioned anywhere in the subsequent literary places. Hence it would rather be a significant and constructive conjecture, if I call this period, the period between the 4th and 5th centuries A.D., the Earliest but Forgotten Period of Kannada Literature."7
After this, sets in the History of Kannada literature, the period of the Great Jaina Commentaries (the 6th and 7th centuries A.D.). which I have envisaged elsewhere.18 These great commentaries are : Those of Sāmakundācārya and Tumbalūrācārya on the Satkhandagama and Kasāyapahuda; the one by an unknown scholar on the Tattvārtha Sūtra, mentioned by Bhattakalamka; and ihat of Bhrajisnu on the Mularādhanā, mentioned by Rāmacandra Mumukșu. These great commentarial works, together with a few smaller ones on Kundakundācārya's select Pahudas, can be said to represent a hidden landmark in the history of Kannada literature. 19
At the last stage of our reflections we can bring in the latter part of to 6th, the 7th and 8th centuries and call it the Period of (a variety of) Independent Works - Prose, Poetry and others (composed by Vimala, Udaya, Nagarjuna Srivijaya, Kavīšvara, Lokapāla and other unknown ones) referred to by Nịpatunga in his Kavirajamārga.20 Thus Ācārya Kundakunda, the great preceptor and literary doyen of Karnataka, appears to have been the starting point of the genesis of an important section of Kannada literature, and his life and works have, thus, led us to some serious reflections which could help us, to some extent, to reveal the mystery of, if not to establish, the long line of development of the Kannada literature of the Pre-Nrpatunga period.
Now coming back to the Kannada Commentaries on Kundakundacārya's important Pahudas, we may face a query as to why such commentaries, if any, have not come down to us, nor referred to by the subsequent scholars? There seems to me two
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