caption official_name rank image article_title
digambara acharya -lrb- animation -rrb- acharya pujyapada acharya digamber jain monk animation.jpg pujyapada

pujyapada

Ācārya pūjyapāda who lived in the 5th century of the common era was a renowned grammarian and saint belonging to the digambara tradition of jains .
before initiation as a jain ascetic , he was known as devanandi .
since it was believed that he was worshiped by demigods on account of his vast scholarship and deep piety , he was named pūjyapāda .
he was heavily influenced by the writings of his predecessors like Ācārya kundakunda and Ācārya samantabhadra .
he is rated as being the greatest of the early masters of jain literature .
he was prominent preceptor , with impeccable pontifical pedigree and spiritual lineage .
`` he was a great yogi , sublime mystic , brilliant poet , noted scholar , eminent author and master of several branches of learning .
he wrote in sanskrit , in prose as well as verse form .
he was pontiff of the nandi sangha , which was a part of the lineage of Ācārya kundakunda .
he was the tenth guru of the pontifical lineage of the nandi sangha .
he was born in a brahmin family of karnataka .
his parents were madhava bhatta and shridevi .
it is likely that he was the first jain saint to write not only on religion but also on secular subjects , such as ayurveda and sanskrit grammar .
when one looks at the earlier writers in the jain tradition , notably kundakunda and samantabhadra , one does not find any secular writings .
they wrote beautifully on religion and the means to attain liberation .
whereas Ācārya pūjyapāda , besides being a profound scholar of the jain religion and a mendicant walking in the footsteps of the jinas , was a grammarian , master of sanskrit poetics and of ayurveda .
Ācārya pūjyapāda was said to be the guru of king durvinita of the ganga dynasty .
he is reliably dated as having lived between 464 - 524 ce .
