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[ 20 ] imposed ordeal aside. No, in fact this is not an ordeal; it is a pursuit that grips you. The test is severe, but you enjoy it while it lasts, and you eagerly submit to it when the interruption is away.. I confess that is what happened to me when this
Hofama: was brought to me with a proposal that I should write an introduction to it. It was only when I had, late after midnight, solved all these riddles that I could grant myself a respite. It was indeed, as I felt it, a very cheap price 'to pay for the pleasure I had derived from the verses, A price? No. I should rather regard it as a privilege.
This output of over a hundred arresting verses has been rendered possible by the rich tradition of ceaseless intellectual engagment which is a praiseworthy characteristic of the Jain religious or ascetic order. The author of the work before us, revered Pannyasji Sri Dhurandhara Vijaya Ganivarya is a highly erudite holy man. Now 42 years of age, he took the Diksha at the age of 14 years, It is remarkble that both he and his father Pujya Pannyasji Sri Punya Vijayji Ganivarya were together initiated to the holy Jain order, the 1918 being Sastra-visarada Kavi Ratna Piyush-pani Acharya Sri Vijaya Amrita Suriswarji, who was the chief
