Acharya Gunadhara lived about two thousand years ago, when the vast oral knowledge of the ancient Purva texts was fading from memory. Tradition says he knew part of the fifth Purva, the Jnanapravada, and feared that its teaching on the passions would be lost. So he condensed that portion into just 180 compact Prakrit verses, the Kashayapahuda, also called Pejjadosapahuda, the treatise on attachment and aversion. With the Shatkhandagama, it is counted among the very first Digambara scriptures to be fixed as texts.
The Kashayapahuda explains how anger, pride, deceit and greed bind karma to the soul, and how these passions are weakened and finally destroyed. Its verses were handed down through Acharyas Aryamankshu and Nagahasti, and Acharya Yativrishabha then wrote about 6,000 short explanatory sutras on them. Centuries later Acharya Virasena began the vast Jayadhavala commentary, which his disciple Jinasena completed in 837 CE. Scholars debate whether Gunadhara lived before or after Dharasena, but both are honoured as early keepers of the teaching.
