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Editors' Preface
After getting favourable responses in India as well as in the West to the first two issues of this trilingual Journal—the first dedicated to Pt. Dalsukhbhai Malvania and the second commemorating Dr. Jagdishchandra Jain-we now place before the researchers in Indology, specially those engaged in Nirgranthological studies, the third number which is dedicated to Prof. Harivallabh Bhayani. Prof. Bhayani was one of the few distinguished scholars of ancient as well as medieval languages, namely Sanskrit, Prakrit, Apabhramsha, old Gujarati, and late medieval as well as contemporary Gujarati literature. He is likewise a renowned expert on the cognate disciplines of linguistics and philology. That is not all : By his profound, penetrating, and unique insights into the etymology, origins, and inherent implications/core-connotations as well as the derivative and associated meanings of the words, his writings lay bare the cultural relationships of words, ideas, and objects alongside their functions and contextual matrices. Not only his inborn perceptivity is uncannily subtle; his grasp of things is also amazingly instantaneous. And we often had noticed that the corresponding / concomitant expression reflected in what he wrote or spoke, is as apt and incisive as is precise and perfect.
Prof. Bhayani kept his knowledge updated by being constantly in touch with the progress made and development manifest not only in the fields in which he had been intensively working for almost six decades, but also was keenly aware of the current trends in the fields of contemporary English literature and the frequent openings of new vistas in that area as well as the birth there of new trends, orientations, and styles. And no less familiar was he with the contemporary vocabulary and fresh jargon evolved in literary criticism. What is more, he was in know of the advances made in the field of philosophy and their impact on the thoughts and generative processes which lay at the root of, and operations within the present day literary productions, with reference particularly to Gujarati, be it creative or in the domain of literary criticism. He was likewise active in the field of Jainistic studies, particularly those related to the linguistic aspects and the Kathā class of literature. For the last decade, he worked as the coëditor of the journal Anusandhāna (Gujarati), Ahmedabad, which largely focuses on the researches relating to the medieval and late medieval Jaina literary material.
His own style of prose is as distinctive and inimitable as is transparently lucid and flawless. What operates behind this happening is his strong concern for accuracy, authenticity, acuity, clarity, brevity, precision, simplicity and, as a collective consequence of these factors, facile communicability and readability. As a result, his prose reflects thoroughness and tightness together with sensitivity of style as well as well-reasoned and comprehensible presentation which also reflects distinctive vibrancy. As in speech, so in writing, he was highly articulate. Moreover, probity and hence dependability of content in
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