Samayasara

Author(s): A Chakravarti
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

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SAMAYABĀRA
Accountant Genial's Otfice, Madras. In 1906, he was appointed as Assistant Professor of Philosophy in the Presidency College. Madras, and thereafter he worked as such ( having become a Professor in 1917) in the Government Colleges at Rajahmundry, Madras and Kumbakonam (of the then Madras Presidency ) from where he retired as Principal in 1938. He was conferred upon the title of Rao Bahadur in the same year.
Prof. Chakravarti was well-versed in the various schools of western philosophy. He brought his wide learning and deep scholarship to bear upon his study of Jaina Philosophy. His Introduction to the Paficāstikāya ( Arrah 1920 ) is a valuable exposition of Jaina metaphysics and ontology. In 1937 be delivered Principal Miller Lectures which are published under the title 'Huma. nism and Indian Thought. He was a stalwart Jaina Srävaka of his times in Tamil Nadu. He was specially interested in Jaina Tamil literature on which he has written a monograph in English (Arrah 1941). He has edited a number of Tamil works by Jaina authors with their commentaries and, in some cases, with his learned exposition in English. For instance, Neelakesi, the text and the commentary of Samaya Divakara Muni, along with his elaborate Introduction in English Madras 1936 ); Thirukkural by Thevar, along with the Tamil commentary by Kavirāja Pandithar (Bharatiya Jnanapitha Tamil Series, No. 1, with an English Introduction (Madras 1949 ); Tirukkural, with English Translation and Commentary and an exhaustive Introduction. He has also edited the Merumandarapuranam in Tamil. His exposition ( described by M. S. H. Thompson, in the J. R. A. Society, London 1955, as 'an indispensable aid to the study of Tirukkural) of the Tirukkural has been hailed both in Indian and outside as a learned and liberal exposition of the Kural, the Tamil Bible. His Religion of Ahimsa' is published by Shri Ratanchand Hirachand, Bombay (1957). It is a learned exposition in English of some aspects of Jainism.
Prof. Chakravarti, as an authority on his subject, contributed a number of essays and articles on Jainism, Ahimsă and contemporary thought to various publications such as Cultural Heritage of India, Philosophy of the East and West, Jaina Gazette, Aryan Path, Tamil Academy. He wrote both in English and Tamil. Some of his papers are reprinted in the 'Yesterday and Today,' Madras 1946. He was a member of a number of Associations and Institutions in Madras.
As a pious Jaina and a deep scholar of Jainism, he wrote a commentary in English on the Samayasara of Kundakunda. He mainly follows the Sanskrit commentary of Amrtacandra Still his exposition of the Samayasära and his evaluation of its contents clearly demonstrate how ably he has expounded the principles of Kundakunda to make them intelligible to the modern world.
Prof. Chakravarti was a well-wisher of the literary activities of the Jhanapitha which are conducted under the patronage of Shriman Sabu Shanti Prasadji Jain and his enlightened wife Smt. Rama Jain. Both of them have encouraged with great self-sacrifice the study and publication of the neglected