The Samayasāra (Quintessence of the Self) of Kundakunda is the key-stone of a Jain tradition that invites the follower to focus on the inner self rather than engaging in external religious practices. The absolute point of view (niścayanaya) on reality must prevail over the practical, conventional point of view (vyavahāranaya): a gold chain enchains as much as an iron one, the so-called good karma enchains the soul as much as the bad. This view of the religion was a shock to the 17th-century merchant-poet Banārasīdās who decided to give a new composition in Brajbhāṣā, the Samayasāra-nāṭaka (Drama on the Quintessence of the Self), inspired by these ideas. By the elements he gave in its autobiography and elsewhere, it seems however that he did not read the original Prakrit text but a rendering in Old Rajasthani written by Paṇḍit Rājamalla in the 16th-century Dhundhar area based on the Samayasāra-kalaśa (Jars Containing the Quintessence of the Self), Sanskrit stanzas which belong to a commentary written by Amṛtacandra in the 10th century. Manuscripts of the Rājamalla text preserved in Jaipur help to understand which text Banārasīdās had in his hands. The succession of commentaries and renderings in Sanskrit and in vernacular languages show the modernity of the Samayasāra which has had a profound impact on the history of Jainism up to the present day.