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3 SANMATI AND ITS COMMENTARY
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containing the auspicious introductory prayer and stating the object of the work and three more verses containing the panegyric at the end of the commentary, the whole of the commentary is written purely in prose, Though there are some verses, here and there, scattered throughout the commentary, they do not belong to the author himself, but are taken from other authors chiefly to corroborate his own viewpoint. The style of prose as found in this commentary is as transparent and pregnant with meaning as the style of the works Prameyakamalamārtaņda and Nyāyakumudacandra, In the Samskrta literature belonging toSwetambara sect written before the 10th century, there is not a single work that can be said to be equal to this present commentary either from the point of style or substance. In the present commentary there is not that pompous. display of erudition and that bitterness towards the rivals. which is found in the works written after the 11th century.
(d) Volume of the Text and Comm. Volume of the Text: The volume of the text is not as small on the one hand as that of Vasubandhu's Virsikā or Trimśikä nor it is as great as the Viseşāvaśyaka Bhāşya of Jinabhadra who succeeded Siddhasena, But it is of the Kundakunda's Pravacanasāra neither too small nor bulky. The verses of Sanmati as stated in the introduction of the first volume are 167 in all. Really speaking, the exact number is 166. One
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