Page Text
________________ HEMACANDRA'S TREATMENT OF THE ALAMKARA AND RASA TRADITIONS At the outset, I sincerely thank the authorities of the L. D. Institute of Indology for inviting me to deliver a lecture in Sri Hemacandra Navacatabdi Vyakhyanamala, organised under the auspicies of their Institute. Acarya Hemacandra, the polymath, is a precious gift of the Jain community of Medieval Gujarat to our country. He was a great man not only of his age but of all ages. He had profound knowledge of almost all branches of learning known to Medieval India and he himself contributed to them by writing authentic compendiums/works which won him the covetable title Kali-kala-sarvajna. I pay homage to the sacred memory of this great Jain polymath/savant. Now, I have been asked to speak on "Hemcandra's Treatment of the Alamkara and Rasa Traditions". With the late Prof. R. C. Parikh I edited Hemacandra's Kavyanusasana. This co-operative venture has a history. Prof. Parikh had just about that time brought out his critical edition of Mammata's Kavyaprakasa with the Samketa commentary of Somesvara Bhatta which was till then unpublished. Then I was working at the Gujarat College. He gave me a complimentary copy. When I glanced through the pages of the Samketa commentary, I noticed question-marks at a number of places indicating that those readings were corrupt. I was prompted by these question-marks to a comparative study and I wrote a review article correcting a large number of passages by identifying their sources, and gave it to Prof. Parikh for pre-view. He was highly impressed by that review article and within a few days he invited me to join him as co-editor in the task of bringing out a second revised edition of Hemcandra's Kavyanusasana and I am happy to state that our edition has been welcomed by scholars in the field as a standard edition. I fully utilised the opportunity provided by Prof. Parikh, studied critically and comprehensively the work and the fruit of this study was my paper "The Sources of Hemacandra's Kavyanusasana". This paper was greatly appreciated by an outstanding alamkarika from Bengal, Prof. Siva Prasad Bhattacarya, who had earlier Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org
| SR No. | 001868 |
| Book Title | Studies in Jain Literature |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | V M Kulkarni |
| Publisher | Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre |
| Publication Year | 2001 |
| Total Pages | 114 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English, Literature, & Story |
| File Size | 14 MB |