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Editors' Preface
In mid-May 1997, we for the first time met Prof. Mehendale at the world-renowned Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune where he has been working for the past several years after retiring from the Deccan College. We, of course, were aware of his researches in the fields of Sanskrit, Prakrit, and Avesta―an academic preoccupation in which he has been continually engaged, indeed for over half a century. We, moreover, were familiar with some of his more famous works. To meet him face to face, however, was for us a rare event and indeed was an experience as profound as was delightful. As we look back, in him we were meeting an academic of great stature, the surprising part was that we found him not only an humble yet dignified, and also a pleasantly communicative scholar, but also serene, soft-spoken, and forthright as well as fearless, a rare combination of several desirable facets of disposition for any scholar possessing outstanding merits and distinction. In the course of our conversation, an idea flashed in our minds. Then, just on an impulse, we proposed to allow us to produce a festschrift for him. After a few contemplative moments, and for certain to our delight, Prof. Mehendale agreed, the result being this Volume which we have pleasure in placing before the scholarly community. The papers, we feel, are well-written and needed only small editorial modifications and adjustments according to a few details of the stylesheet this Centre has adopted. However, we must clarify that we have
