Acharya Pujyapada or Pūjyapāda (464–524 CE)["Jaina Antiquary". Volume XVIII.1, pp 13-15.]
Life
Pujyapada is said to have lived from 510 CE to 600 CE. Born under the name Devanandi to parents Madhava Bhatta and Shridevi,
[Introduction. Jain, Jaykumar. Samadhitantra. First edition, 2006.] he was a sadhu
Digambara monk, as well as a yogi, mystic, poet, scholar, author and master of several branches of learning.
[Page 98, Ibid.] As the Devs from heaven used to come to do Puja of his feet Paad, the title of Pujyapaad was given to him. He was heavily influenced by the writings of his predecessors like
Acharya Kundakunda and
Acharya Samantabhadra. He is rated as being the greatest of the early masters of
Jain literature.
[Page 98, Jain, Jyoti Prasad. The Jaina Sources of the History of Ancient India. Second, revised edition: 2005.] He was prominent preceptor, with impeccable pontifical pedigree and spiritual lineage. All of his work was written in
Sanskrit, in prose as well as verse form.
[Page 98, Ibid.] He was pontiff of the
Nandi sangha, which was a part of the lineage of
Acharya Kundakunda. He was the tenth guru of the pontifical lineage of the
Nandi Sangha. He was born in a
Jain Brahmans (In Jain philosophy, a pratimādhārī shravaka—a layperson with vows—is considered a Brahman)
[Jaini, Padmanabh S. (1998). The Jaina Path of Purification. p. 151.]family of
Karnataka.
It is likely that he was the first Jain saint to write not only on religion but also on non-religious subjects, such as ayurveda and Sanskrit grammar. Acharya Pujyapada, besides being a scholar on Jainism and a mendicant walking in the footsteps of the Jinas, was a grammarian, master of Sanskrit poetics and of ayurveda.
Pujyapada gave the definition of Dāna (charity) as the act of giving one's wealth to another for mutual benefit in Sarvarthasiddhi.
Works
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Jainābhiṣeka (Jain Anointment) - A work on Jain rituals.
-
Chandaśāstra (Treatise on Prosody) - A work on Sanskrit prosody.
See also
Citations
Sources
Further reading
