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Kundakunda was a Digambara Jain monk and philosopher, who likely lived in the 2nd CE century CE or later.

He authored many Jain texts such as: Samayasara, Niyamasara, Pancastikayasara, Pravachanasara, Astapahuda and Barasanuvekkha. He occupies the highest place in the tradition of the Digambara Jain acharyas. All Digambara Jains say his name before starting to read the scripture. He spent most of his time at Ponnur Hills, Tamil Nadu and later part of life at Kundadri, Shimoga, Karnataka

Name:

His proper name was Padmanandin,he is popularly referred to as Kundakunda possibly because the modern village of Kondakunde in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh might represent his native home.He is also presumed to be the one being alluded to by names such as Elacarya, Vakragriva, Grdhrapiccha or Mahamati, but these names have caused confusion and are likely incorrect because they have been used for other Jain scholars such as Umaswati in texts and others in inscriptions.

 

Biography:

Kundakunda belonged to the Digambara sect. Natubhai Shah places him in the second-century CE.Jayandra Soni places him in either the 2nd– or 3rd–century CE.Western scholars, however, place him much later primarily because of ideas he refers to and because his hagiography and quotations from his influential and important work begin to appear around 8th-century CE. For example, Paul Dundas dates him to about mid-8th-century.

In the Digambara tradition, Kundakunda's texts are among the most important and treasured. The reverence for his scholarship is such that some later texts such as Pravachanasara list him third in importance, right after Mahavira and Mahavira's disciple Indrabhuti Gautama. A.N. Upadhye in his critical edition of the Pravachansara suggests Kundakunda to have lived in the middle of the 2nd century CE.

 

Works:

The works attributed to Kundakunda, all of them in Prakrit,can be divided in three groups.

The first group comprises four original works described as "The Essence" (sara)—namely, the Niyamas?ra (The Essence of the Restraint, in 187 verses), the Pañc?stik?yas?ra (The Essence of the Five Existents, in 153 verses), the Samayas?ra (The Essence of the Self, in 439 verses), and the Pravacanas?ra (The Essence of the Teaching, in 275 verses).

The second group is a collection of ten bhaktis (devotional prayers), short compositions in praise of the acharya (Acharyabhakti), the scriptures (Srutabhakti), the mendicant conduct (Charitrabhakti), and so forth. They form the standard liturgical texts used by the Digambara in their daily rituals and bear close resemblance to similar texts employed by the ?v?t?mbara, suggesting the possibility of their origin in the canonical period prior to the division of the community.

The last group consists of eight short texts called Prabhrta (Pkt. pahuda, i.e., a gift or a treatise), probably compilations from some older sources, on such topics as the right view (Darsanaprabhrta, in 36 verses), right conduct (Charitraprabhrta, in 44 verses), the scripture (Sutraprabhrta, in 27 verses), and so forth.