Sambodhi 1988 Vol 15

Author(s): Ramesh S Betai, Yajneshwar S Shastri
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 16

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a muni. This seems to be a poor view of the strength of the human mind. Virtue does not mean and should not mean running away from occasions of temptation but taking a firm stand to overcome them and discipline of a serious scholar should teach him to be detached enough..
The writing of Kāvyānuśāna by a muni like Hemacandra could be accounted for this way too : a person can have an experience, say, that of anger, and can treat it as an object of his awareness; thus the duality of subject and object is, or at least, can be present, even when the object is a mental phenomenon. A sādhaka (mumuksu) can experience the traces of past experience, awakened by the stimulus-(here, a play) and can treat the newly evoked experience as the object of his awareness. Two options are available here for him : (i) He can give up his attitude of subject and get immersed in the aroused emotion, or (ii) he can treat it as an object, to test his spiritual strength, the extent of his spiritual attainment. If he adopts the second option it need not obstruct his spiritual progress.
A disciplined muni like Ācārya Hemacandra could adopt the second option and read, appreciate and even write Kāvya portraying Syngāra, häsya and other rasas. There is absolutely, no inherent contradiction between ascetic life and engaging in creative literary activities.
Charge of plagiarism
A modern writer on Sanskrit poetics has charged Hemacandra of plagiarism. In his own times too, it appears, he was charged with plagiarism. For when writing his pramāņa-mimämsä he takes note of this unjustified criticism and briefly answers it, basing his arguments on Jayantabharta's famous Nyāyamañjari which was composed about two centuries before Kāvyānuśāśana. This relevant discussion, though somewhat long, deserves to be reproduced at least partially :
"Before the advent of Akşapāda who was there to establish the validity of the Vedas ? But it is a feeble objection. Who has interpreted the Vedas before Jaimini? Who has given the analysis of words before Pāṇini ? Who has made a study of metres before Pingala ? From the dawn of creation these sciences are in vogue on earth like the Vedas. (The so-called authors do not invent the sciences but) they treat the existent or old subject-matters either in an elaborate manner or in an abridged form; and from that point of view only they are called their authors.''2 2. नन्वक्षपादात् पूर्व कुतो वेदप्रामाण्य निश्चय आर्सत् । अत्यल्पमिदमुच्यते । जैमिनेः पूर्व . aie aiera: nifura: qa qifa zycgitaifa l faguttaga
केन छन्दांसि रचितानि । आदिसर्गात् प्रभृति वेदवदिमा विद्याः प्रवृत्ताः । संक्षेप-विस्तरविवक्षया तु तांस्तांस्तत्र कर्तृनाचक्षते ।