A History of Indian Literature v2.c20.s3.9

v2.c20.s3.9

Kundakunda,⁴ who, according to the Paṭṭāvalīs of the Digambaras, lived in the 1st century A.D., calls himself a pupil of Bhadrabāhu, perhaps referring thereby to Bhadrabahu II.¹ He wrote his learned works only in Prākrit. Umāsvāmin, who is called Umāsvāti by the Śvetāmbaras, and who is recognised by both sects as a great authority in matters pertaining to the faith, is according to the Digambaras, a pupil of Kundakunda. Vaṭṭakera and Kārttikeya Svāmin, too, probably belong to the first centuries of the Christian era. Siddhasena Divākara, who is by some also ascribed to the earlier centuries of the Christian era, and by others to a period as late as the 7th century A.D., is celebrated both as a logician and a lyrical poet.² Vimala Sūri, who, according to his own statements, composed his Rāma-epic Paümacariya in Prākrit 530 years after the Nirvāṇa,³ is certainly a very early Prākrit poet. During the first centuries, at all events prior to the 5th century A.D., Pālitta (Pādalipta)¹ wrote a religious novel in Prākrit. It is possible that the poet Mānatuṅga,² who, according to some of the lists of teachers, lived as early as at the beginning of the 3rd century A.D., also belongs to the early period of classical Sanskrit poetry. Devanandin or Jinendrabuddhi, who is usually called by his honorific name Pūjyapāda, and who is famous as a grammarian, poet and erudite writer, lived between the 5th and 7th centuries.³