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Kundakunda
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Kundakunda

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Kundakunda is the name given to the author or authors of sixteen influential Digambara texts, including Niyamasāra ("The Essence of the Restraint"), Pañcāstikāyasāra ("The Essence of the Five Existents"), Samayasāra ("The Essence of the Self"), and Pravacanasāra ("The Essence of the Teaching"). These attributions are questioned, and "only parts of some works are likely to have been written by him," showing "clear signs of interpolations" and multiple authorship.

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Works
32

Top works

  • Acharya Kundakunda's Samayasara
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  • The building of the cosmos
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  • Niyamasāra of Āchārya Kundakunda

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Key facts

Religious biography.honorific prefix
Acharya
Religious biography.image
Acharya KundaKunda.jpg
Religious biography.caption
Idol of Kundakunda, Karnataka
Religious biography.religion
Jainism
Religious biography.sect
Digambara
Religious biography.birth_date
scholarly dating 8th century CE, or multiple authorship with layers dating from 350–400 up to 950–1150 CE; trad. Jain-dating 2nd–3rd century CE

via Wikipedia infobox

~13 min read

Encyclopedic overview

12 sections
Contents
  • Authorship, names, and dating
  • Thought and influences
  • Works
  • Influence
  • Digambara mysticism
  • Kundakunda-inspired lay-movements
  • Publications and translations
  • See also
  • Notes
  • References
  • Sources
  • External links

Kundakunda is the name given to the author or authors of sixteen influential Digambara texts, including Niyamasāra ("The Essence of the Restraint"), Pañcāstikāyasāra ("The Essence of the Five Existents"), Samayasāra ("The Essence of the Self"), and Pravacanasāra ("The Essence of the Teaching"). These attributions are questioned, and "only parts of some works are likely to have been written by him," showing "clear signs of interpolations" and multiple authorship.

While dates for "Kundakunda" range from scholarly datings in the 8th c. CE to traditional datings in the 2nd–3rd c. CE, texts attributed to him may reflect multiple authorship, containing layers dating from 350–400 (Pañcâstikāya-sangraha) and 550–600 CE (Samaya-sāra) up to 950–1150 CE. The Kundakunda-core texts were anonymous compilations for several centuries, and it is not until Jayasena's (ca. 1150–1200) commentary on the Pañcâstikāya that an author is explicitly mentioned and a Kundakunda-narrative is created.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Kundakunda” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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