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Foreword
Jagdish Prasad Jain "Sadhak”
Srarupa Sambodhana is a short treatise, comprising only twentyfive verses, by Acharya Akalanka Deva (also known as Bhatta Akalanka Deva) who lived in the eighth century A.D. An original thinker, a great scholar, a good commentator, and a brilliant logician, he refuted the philosophy of Dharmakirti - Buddhist scholar of great repute. Akalanka was an accomplished debater who defeated Buddhist scholars in philosophical disputations. His contribution to the field of Jain logic was so immense that he is considered as the “Father of Jain Logic”, and Jain Logic has come to be designated as "Akalanka Logic" (Akalanka-nyaya). Dr. Atsusi Uno, Professor Emeritus at Hiroshima University observes:
Akalanka Deva (c. 625-675 CE.), well-known for his Akalankamaya, undoubtedly occupies the highest place in the Jaina logical literature, as a logician and doughty controversialist against opponent schools. It may be said without exaggeration that he was the first to systematise the Jaina logic and philosophy, exerting the greatest influence on later Jaina literature on that line.
In addition to Swarupa Sambodhana, the original works,
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