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Introduction
CCLXXVII
compose a new grammar for the benefit of all people. I will have celebrity and you will have celebrity and merit.
39 3
Thus, the abhyarthana' or the repeated request of the king, referred to by Hemachandra himself is described by the Pra. Cha. There are, of course, poetic flourishes in the description, but there is no reason to doubt the historicity of the occasion. We have seen, before, that the rivalry between Mälava and Gujarat was not only political but literary and cultural also. The kings of Gujarat were as jealous of the paramountcy of their learned assembly as the paramountcy of their power. Jayasimha, in fact, wanted to emulate the famous Vikrama of Ujjayinī, and after he had become Avantinatha, it was but natural for Jayasimha to make his Gujarat superior in literary culture also.
'Hemachandra replied: "Your word is only a reminder of what it is our duty to do. But there are eight grammars, and these works are, no doubt, in the library of Ṣrī Bhāratīdevi. Get them through your men from Kāṣmīradeṣa; so that, Oh Great King! the science of language be composed well" ' (vs. 85-6-7). This speech, if it embodies the substance of what Hemachandra might have said, indicates, why Hemachandra wanted to go to Kāṣmīra. It was probably to be a great Vaiyākaraṇa; and to be a great Vaiyākaraṇa was the hall-mark of rare learning then, even as it is now, among the panditas of India. It secondly indicates that Hemachandra was thinking of writing a grammar even before the king requested him to do so. The grammar with its commentary and other appendices was quickly completed after the request
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