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OURSELVES
klyptam vyäkaranam navam viracitam chando navamdvyasrayalankārau prathitau navamprakatitam fri yogafästram navam tarka sanjanito navo jinararādınām caritram navam baddham yena na kena vidhina mohah keta duratah
The Jaina monks traditionally knew Hemacandra as one of the great exponents of their own philosophy but very few people actually knew his versatile interest and spiritual stature. It is the Oriental scholars like Peterson, Buehler and others who first discovered in him in the 19th century a great savant of whom not only the Jaina community but the whole of India can be proud In fact, there have been in India not many scholars of the stature and erudition of Hemacandra and there is perhaps no one equal to him in versatility. Both Sanskrit and Prakrit literature including Apabhramsa owe much to bim.
Even today the knowledge about Hemacandra is restricted to a few academicians and scholars and not much of the contributions made by this savant in the fields as far apart as philosophy, morals, biography of Jaina saints, grammar, prosody, rhetoric and lexicons, in short, science of words, bas a currency among the lay public. Hence we have taken this opportunity in our humble way of projecting his works and contributions to a larger public and we shall deem our effort amply rewarded If by this we are able to cnkindle the interest of the people in this great savant who lived and moved on the soul of this sacred land.
We remember and pay our own sincere bomage to this chosen son of the Goddess of Learning.
