caption official_name initiator sect birth_date rank image article_title
idol of acharya kundakunda , karnataka kundakunda swami acharya jin chandra august 2015 digambara 2nd century bc acharya acharya kundakunda.jpg kundakunda

kundakunda

kundakunda , also known as acharya kundkund is the most revered digambara jain monk , who lived in around 1st century b.c. .
he authored many jain texts such as : `` samayasara , niyamasara , panchastikayasara , pravachansara , atthapahuda '' and `` barasanuvekkha '' .
he occupies the highest place in the tradition of the jain acharyas .
he belonged to the mula sangh order .
his proper name was padmanandi , he is popularly referred to as kundakunda because he was born in a place named kaundakunda in south india .
he is closely associated with the digambara sect , also in recent decades , his books have become popular among svetambaras also .
he was known also as : padmanandi elacarya vakragriva grddhapiccha for digambaras , his name has auspicious significance and occupies third place after bhagavan mahavira and gautama ganadhara in the sacred litany .
kundakunda 's singular contribution consists in his compiling a number of liturgical tracts and creating several masterly doctrinal works of his own , which provided a parallel canon for the digambara tradition .
this earned him the everlasting gratitude of the digambaras , who have for centuries invoked his name together with that of mahavira and his chief ganadhara indrabhuti gautama , placing him ahead even of bhadrabahu , visakha , and some forty other elders -lrb- sthaviras -rrb- in the lineage , thus making him virtually the founder of the digambara sect .
