Purva-Mimamsa in its Sources c2: General Preface
Pūrva-Mīmāṃsā in its Sources c2
- Language
- English
General Preface
c2.1
At a time when civilisation is in peril and schemes of social reconstruction are in the air, it is wise to know what the seers of the past have said on the deeper problems of thought and life. The question of the nature and destiny of man, the purpose of society, its relation to the individual are near and intimate to each one of us. But only a select few care to spend the greater part of their lives over them and fewer still their whole lives and energies. But these few, whatever divergent answers they may seem to have found, stand high above ordinary humanity and have struggled to heights which have been gradually won for us. Man is a teachable animal, and by a sympathetic study of the past gropings and stumblings of mankind, he can avoid, though not error, at least its repetition.
c2.2
In India the problems of philosophy and religion have occupied for centuries an important place. While the leaders of philosophy have attempted to solve the riddle of existence, the teachers of religion have sought to supply us with an ordered scheme of life. The story of Indian thought gives us an important chapter, in what Lessing calls, the education of the human race. What is noteworthy is not the painful ignorance natural to a world over which generations of wild men have swept but the attempt to rise out of that ignorance. The greatness of the ancient thinkers of India is that they struggled persistently and often successfully to discover the spiritual values which enlarge the mind and add to the beauty of life. The progress of man, it is generally admitted today, is a continuous victory of thought over passion, of tolerance over fanaticism, of persuasion over force.
c2.3
In this series, it is proposed to bring out studies of ancient Indian classics and thought by competent scholars who have looked at them with new eyes and greater freedom. We are proud that the first volume is by that great scholar Mahamahopadhyaya Dr. Sir Ganganatha Jha. His refined, gentle and retiring nature, combined with his wide culture and intense seriousness gave us the impression of one who lived the religion he professed and this volume by him is a masterpiece of completeness, clarity and compression.
c2.4
15th April, 1942.
c2.5
S. R.