Acharya Kundakunda
Idol of KundaKunda,Karnataka
Personal life
Born	2nd century CE[1]
Religious life
Religion	Jainism
Sect	Digambara

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Kundakunda was aDigambaraJain monk and philosopher, who likely lived in the second century CE or later.^[2][3][4]

He was born in māgha māsa, śukla pakṣa, pañcamī tithi ofVasant Panchami. He authored manyJain texts such as:Samayasara,Niyamasara,Pancastikayasara,Pravachanasara, Astapahuda andBarasanuvekkha. He occupies the highest place in the tradition of theDigambara Jainacharyas. Recital of Digambara scriptures begin with his name. He spent most of his time atPonnur Hills,Tamil Nadu and later part of life atKundadri,Shimoga, Karnataka.^[4]

His proper name wasPadmanandin,^[5] he is popularly referred to as Kundakunda possibly because the modern village ofKonakondla inAnantapur district ofAndhra Pradesh which is his birth place.^[3][6] He is also presumed to be the one being alluded to by names such asElacarya,Vakragriva,Grdhrapiccha orMahamati.^[5] He is also calledThiruvalluvar, the author of tamil classicalThirukkural, besides many other cannons in jain literature.

Kundakunda belonged to theDigambara sect. Natubhai Shah places him in the second-century CE.^[3] Jayandra Soni places him in either the 2nd– or 3rd–century CE.^[2] 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.^[7][8]

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 asPravachanasara list him third in importance, right after Mahavira and Mahavira's disciple Indrabhuti Gautama.^[9]A.N. Upadhye in his critical edition of thePravachansara suggests Kundakunda to have lived in the middle of the 2nd century CE.^[10]

In texts such asPravacanasāra(‘The Essence of the Doctrine’) andSamayasāra (‘The Essence of the Soul’), Kundakunda distinguishes between two perspectives of truth:

• vyavahāranaya or ‘mundane perspective’, also delusion (moha)
• niścayanaya or ‘ultimate perspective’, also called “supreme” (paramārtha) and “pure” (śuddha)^[11]

For Kundakunda, the mundane realm of truth is also the relative perspective of normal folk, where the workings ofkarma operate and where things emerge, last for a certain duration and perish. The mundane aspect is associated with the changing qualities of the soul mainly the influx of karmic particles. The ultimate perspective meanwhile, is that of the puresoul oratman, thejiva, which is "blissful, energetic, perceptive, and omniscient".^[11] Delusion and bondage is caused by the confusion of the workings of karma with the true nature of the soul, which is always pure, in other words, it is caused by taking the view ofvyavahāranaya, not the higherniścayanaya which is the absolute perspective of aJina -Kevala Jnana. His view has become the mainstream view inDigambara Jainism.^[12]

The works attributed to Kundakunda, all of them inPrakrit,^[6] can be divided in three groups.

The first group comprises four original works described as "The Essence" (sara)—namely, theNiyamasāra (The Essence of the Restraint, in 187 verses), thePañcāstikāyasāra (The Essence of the Five Existents, in 153 verses), theSamayasāra (The Essence of the Self, in 439 verses), and thePravacanasāra (The Essence of the Teaching, in 275 verses).^[3]

The second group is a collection of ten bhaktis (devotional prayers), short compositions in praise of theacharya (Acharyabhakti), thescriptures (Srutabhakti), themendicant conduct (Charitrabhakti), and so forth. They form the standard liturgical texts used by theDigambaras in their daily rituals and bear close resemblance to similar, more ancient texts written by theŚvētāmbaras, suggesting the possibility of adoption of some ideas of devotional prayers from the Śvētāmbara canon.^[13]

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.

• Simandhar Swami
• Devardhigani Kshamashraman
• Hemachandra
• Hiravijaya

• Cort, John E. (10 July 1998),Open Boundaries: Jain Communities and Cultures in Indian History,SUNY Press,ISBN 0-7914-3785-X
• Dundas, Paul (2002).The Jains. Routledge.ISBN 978-0-415-26606-2.
• Jain, Vijay K. (2012),Acharya Kundkund's Samayasara, Vikalp Printers,ISBN 978-81-903639-3-8
• Jayandra Soni (2003) [2002],Balcerowicz, Piotr (ed.),Essays in Jaina Philosophy and Religion,Motilal Banarsidass,ISBN 81-208-1977-2
• Jaini, Padmanabh (1991),Gender and Salvation: Jaina Debates on the Spiritual Liberation of Women, Berkeley: University of California Press
• Long, Jeffery D. (2013).Jainism: An Introduction. I.B.Tauris.ISBN 978-0-85771-392-6.
• Shah, Natubhai (2004) [First published in 1998],Jainism: The World of Conquerors, vol. I,Motilal Banarsidass,ISBN 81-208-1938-1
• Singh, Upinder (2008),A history of ancient and early medieval India : from the Stone Age to the 12th century,New Delhi:Pearson Education,ISBN 978-81-317-1120-0
• Dhaky, M.A.; Jain, Sagarmal, eds. (1991),The Date of Kundakundācārya, Aspects of Jainology Vol. III: Pt. Dalsukh Bhai Malvania Felicitation Volume I. Varanasi, vol. I, pp. 187–206

• Jain, Vijay K. (2021).Ācārya Kundakunda’s Bārasa Aṇuvekkhā – The Twelve Contemplations आचार्य कुन्दकुन्द विरचित बारस अणुवेक्खा (द्वादश अनुप्रेक्षा, बारह भावना). Dehradun: Vikalp Printers.ISBN 978-93-5566-134-0.
• Jain, Vijay K. (2019).Ācārya Kundakunda’s Niyamasāra – The Essence of Soul-adoration आचार्य कुन्दकुन्द विरचित "नियमसार". Dehradun: Vikalp Printers.ISBN 978-81-932726-3-3.
• Jain, Vijay K. (2020).Ācārya Kundakunda’s Pańcāstikāya-saṃgraha – With Authentic Explanatory Notes in English (The Jaina Metaphysics). Dehradun: Vikalp Printers.ISBN 978-81-932726-5-7.
• Jain, Vijay K. (2018).Ācārya Kundakunda’s Pravacanasāra – Essence of the Doctrine. Dehradun: Vikalp Printers.ISBN 978-81-932726-1-9.
• Jain, Vijay K. (2023).Ācārya Kundakunda’s Rayaṇasāra आचार्य कुन्दकुन्द विरचित रयणसार. Dehradun: Vikalp Printers.ISBN 978-93-5980-180-3.
• Jain, Vijay K. (2022).Ācārya Kundakunda’s Samayasāra – with Hindi and English Translation आचार्य कुन्दकुन्द विरचित समयसार. Dehradun: Vikalp Printers.ISBN 978-93-5680-382-4.
• Jain, Vijay K. (2012).Âchârya Kundkund’s Samayasāra श्रीमदाचार्य कुन्दकुन्द विरचित समयसार. Dehradun: Vikalp Printers.ISBN 81-903639-3-X.OCLC 811822895.
• Kundakunda.Niyamasāra, ed. and trans. U. Sain, Lucknow, 1931.
• Kundakunda.Pravacanasāra with Amṛtacandra’s commentary, ed. A. N. Upadhye, Bombay, 1935.
• Kundakunda.Samayasāra, text, trans. and comm. by A. Chakravarti, Banaras, 1930.

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