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104
JAINA GAZETTE.
PRAMANA-MIMAMSA
OF
HEMACHANDRA ACHARYA Translated from the Original Sanskrit
BY
Sarat Chandra Ghoshal, M.A., B.L., Saraswati, Kavya-tirtha, Vidyabhusan, Bharati. General Editor 'Sacred Books of the Jainas Translator "Vedanta-paribhasa," Vayu-purana," "Dravya-samgraha," etc., etc.
66
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Foreword.
Pramâna-Minâmsâ is a treatise on Jaina Nyâya philosophy by the celebrated Jain writer Hemachandra Acharya, the author of Abhidhâna-Chintamani, Siddha-Hemachandra, Dvyâ-srayamahâ-kâvya, Trishasti-salâkâ-purusha-charitra, Arban-nîti, etc. The history of the life of Hemachandra is fully treated in Râsa-mâla, edited by Forbes, Prabandha-Chintamani of Merutunga, edited by Tawney, and other works, and a summary of these accounts may be found in S. P. Pandit's introduction to Kumarapalcharita which is a portion of Dvyâsraya-mahâkâ vya mentioned above. We refrain from repeating the same and content ourselves by saying that Hemachandra, the contemporary of Kumârpâla, king of Anahillapura (Pattana), flourished in the 12th century A. D. and he has left a record of his surprising genius in a dictionary, a grammar on Sanskrit and Prakrit languages, a Kâvya, part of which was written in Sanskrit and part in Prakrit, a legendary history of the sixty-three heroes of the Jainas, a work on Jain law, and other smaller works on various subjects appertaining to Jainism. The work PramânaMimàmsâ deals with the different forms of proof, and a clear idea of Jain logic may be formed from the portions of this work which have survived to us. It is a pity that out of five chapters of the original work only the first and a part of the second has been printed up to the present and a thorough search ought to be instituted for manuscripts containing the remaining portions of Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
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