Book Title: Shataka Trayadi Subhashit Sangraha
Author(s): Bhartuhari, Dharmanand Kosambi
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

View full book text
Previous | Next

Page 17
________________ VI FOREWORD manner under any scholar, he had nevertheless, because of his con stant efforts, his wide travels, and the broad study resulting from these, gained an international fame and status in scholarship. At a stage when our students receive their baccalaureate under modern education, he had hardly begun his study of Sanskrit. When there was not a single person in the whole of India even acquainted with the Pali language, he developed an unquenchable desire for the study of Pali fiterature, went to the then almost unknown countries like Ceylon and Burma, to be initiated into the Buddhist monastic order, and under the greatest hardships of accommodation as well as diet secured an advanced mastery over the Pali language. Thus, he became a devoted follower of the Lord Buddha and a finished scholar of the Pali Tripitaka which contains his teaching. As a result of his own study and scientific point of view, he became completely familiar with the critical method and from that point of view he approached and penetrated into all works whether the Buddhist scriptures, Vedas, Vedantic writings, or those of the Jains. * Just as Prof. Dharmanandji was a spiritual personality of the highest type, so also was he a brilliant scholar and sincere lover of his country. He finished his ascetic training in an inspiring fashion, and spread Pali literature as well as Buddhist principles in India with the utmost devotion. His natural ability gained him the enviable position of the first Indian orientalist to be invited by so well known a foreign institution as Harvard University. Dharmanandji was thus a happy, middle-class family man. By reason of his contented, and upright having an excellent wife, an able and brilliant son, charming and bright daughters, he was a gentleman member of the class regarded as fortunate in society; nevertheless, his inner personality was impartial, detached, and highly ascetic. He had not the slightest desire for money nor was he excessively partial to his relations. He saw to it that his children had the highest possible type of education, but beyond that he did not show on their behalf the least social cupidity. For the last 15 years he had renounced all sense of personal desire and went wherever he could render the best service in a detached fashion by his mental and physical powers. Although an unceasing worshipper of knowledge, as well as a profound thinker, he was still an absolute patriot. He participated in the country's struggle for freedom with great enthusiasm and trod the path to jail with a light heart. Even after becoming an elder in age, knowledge, and self-control his idea were still youthfully revolutionary. His inner mind always suffered at the sight of the stupidity in thought and ritual by means of which the Brahmin caste has, in the name of the Hindu religion, made India for these Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 ... 346