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PANDIT SUKHALALJI-A Dynamic Litterateur
A. N. Upadhye
Prajñācakşu Pandit Sukhalalji is one of the great Indian authors and thinkers ; he has enriched contemporary learning and thought by his manifold writings in Hindi and Gujarāti. If some of us do not know him, it is because our study and reading, nowadays, do not go beyond our specialised branches of learning and favourite languages : that is a hurdle which we must cross and understand and appreciate a writer like Pandit Sukhalalji who has rendered a progressive, purposeful and fruitful contribution to the wealth of human thought.
The personality of Pandit Sukhalaji has manifold aspects. Those who have met him know that he has lost his eyesight at an early age. His figure is frail; and left to himself, he would not catch the attention of anybody. But if one gets an opportunity to discuss any serious topic with him, one will come to know within a few minutes that behind his frail figure there is à mighty spirit full of power, founded on extensive learning and equipped with an all round vision of multitudinous problems about life and literature. Pandit Sukhalalji's physical disability going with an outstanding scholarship and abiding literary output reminds me of that great English poet, John Milton. What Panditji really is, is not easily indicated from what he appears to be at the first sight. He is a gem of great lustre and value, but it is a matter of surprise that they are concealed behind a simple appearance.
By his age Panditji belongs to the last generation; but by his vision and thoughts he not only lives in the living present but he is also ahead of his times. Those who have steadily read his articles and studied his works know that by his education, obviously of the traditional type, he is a Naiyayika (tbeologian-logician), a Vaiyākaraņa (grammarian), a Dārsanik (philosopher) and a Dharmajña (religious expert), as far as his basic equipments go. But his format is something different from the hackneyed type. His studies of Nyaya and Darsana works like the Sanmatitarka, Parmāņamimāmsā, Jñānabindu, Hetubindu and Tattvopaplavasimha clearly indicate that his equipments and consequent discussions have something characteristic
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