Jain Journal 1968 01

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 30

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JAIN JOURNAL
him the opportunity to learn Pali as thoroughly as he knew Prakrit. In fact, Panditji had a special knack for language studies. He is a linguist of an high order.
Although he started as a conservative Jaina in his outlook so much so that he would not even read a non-Jaina book, he was profoundly influenced by new ideas when the socio-political upheaval which took place under the leadership of Gandhiji shook the country. The more he read the Jaina scriptures and texts, the more he became convinced that the Jainas had deviated from the main stream of the Jaina thought as professed in the texts. His lectures on the 'Harmful Effects of the Corruptive Changes in the Jaina Literature' delivered in 1919 in Bombay became the mile-stone in his life. There was a storm against him and he was socially boycotted. He was dubbed as a dangerous non-conformist and nonbeliever. Panditji stuck to his conviction and whatever and whenever he wrote or spoke, his stand was the same. He did not yield to make any compromise in his views, which were based on his study of the Jaina texts. His courage of conviction and boldness of expression made him an intellectual hero of the Jaina youth. Wherever he went he had stones from the old and bouquets from the young. This writer remembers how deeply he was influenced and stirred in thought by Panditji's book containing aforesaid lectures. He read and read these lectures over many a sleepless nights. It was after this episode that Panditji was drawn to Mahatma Gandhi. He joined the Gujarat Vidyapitha in 1921-22 and collaborated there with Pandit Sukhlalji in editing 'Sanmati Tarka'. This work had a great strain on Panditji--his eye-sight was affected, but in spite of this he had no rest, because the national movement in connection with the Dandee march had been started by Gandhiji. Panditji took upon himself the responsibility of editing Gandhiji's journal Navajivan'. He was later jailed for about 9 months. After his release from jail, he had a real tough time, because on account of his political involvement, he was left without any means of livelihood and for a period of four to five years, he had to pass through a period of great economic hardship and uncertainty. It was a testing time for Panditji, but nothing could break him. Later his appointment as a lecturer in Ardhamagadhi in S.L.D. Arts College in Ahmedabad saw him out of this hard time. His lectures on the 'Evolution of the Gujarati Language' delivered in the Bombay University in 1940 won him a signal recognition and his book is considered even now as a very valuable work on Gujarati language. As a writer, translator or editor, he is responsible for nearly fifty publications which bear the stamp of his scholarship. He is reckoned as one of the greatest scholars of Prakrit, Magadhi, Ardhamagadhi and Pali languages. Nearly three years back, he was awarded by the President of the Indian