Teacher of Humanity

Author(s): C S Mallinath
Publisher: Pulchandji Ved

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could not find any, better work for him than to send him to collect alms and fetch water. His mental capacity was so limited at that time that when he began to study the Pratikramana Sutra, it took him not less than eighteen months to learn by heart two Pratikramanas which an average student can easily master in about a month. But his intelligence was not dull; it was only dormant. Stimulated by the example of his learned preceptor, Dharma Vijaya soon began to study the Sanskrit and Prakrit Literatures. Under a competent teacher he mastered Sarasvata Chandrika in a short time and began to study the Sutras, the Canonical Texts of the Jains. Along with the progress of his literary studies, a strong liking for polemics was also growing in his mind. Vriddhi Chandra was a good and convincing preacher, and the sermons he was delivering before Jain audiences as well as the private discussions he was having with the orthodox and heterodox visitors in the Upashraya, were deeply engaging the attention of Dharma Vijaya, who soon began to feel a desire to become a preacher himself. This desire made him study the methods of his teacher ;-how he delivered public vyakhyans and conducted private debates, how he cleared doubts and answered questions. Sometime after, when he addressed the public for the first time, it was such a triumph that everybody
was surprised including Vriddhi Chandra.