Purva-Mimamsa in its Sources c3.3

c3.3

3. A tragic interest attaches to the production of this volume. It is about three years since this Mīmāmsā volume has been in the printers' hands, but on account of various difficulties, the publication of the volume has been delayed so long. Dr. Sir Ganganatha Jha had desired that this volume might see the light of day during his lifetime. But it was not to be! The main body of the volume was already in print, but the Critical Bibliography as well as the Prefaces had to be written and printed. The Taj was not built in a day; and a monumental work like this is bound to take some time for its proper production. I had announced in my preface to Dr. Jha's Vedānta Lectures published by the Allahabad University, that a great work from his pen was coming, and that it would be the consummation of Panditji's life-work, and so it has been. I do not know that there has been any scholar in the whole length and breadth of India who has worked on the Philosophy of Mīmāmsā so much and so intently as Dr. Sir Ganganatha Jha has done. His translations of the Śloka-vārttika and Tantra-vārttika, as well as Śabara-bhāṣya, have been monumental. A pinnacle was required to be placed on the edifice; and the present work, summing up in a philosophical manner the teachings of the great Mīmāṃsaka philosophers, supplied the much needed desideratum. It is no exaggeration to say that if reincarnation may be regarded as valid, Dr. Ganganatha Jha might be taken to be an *avatāra* of Kumārila. His Doctorate thesis was on Prabhākara no doubt, but the consummation of his life's work was in the exposition of the philosophy of Kumārila, which has not been attempted by anybody hitherto. Like Kumārila, Sir Ganganatha Jha left his mortal body on the banks of the Ganges at Prayāga. To me personally, as it was to many an eminent Doctor, it was a wonderful sight to see the Panditji sitting up in a Yogic posture throughout the entire last month of his life without pause. It was a feat which could be accomplished by rarely any person during the last stages of his life. When Dr. Umesh Mishra and myself had been to pay our respects to the Revered Panditji just six hours before he passed away—alas! we did not know that it was our final visit to him, nor that it was the final visit that he granted consciously to anybody—he appeared to us, and we shall long cherish the impression, that he was a "lion among philosophers," roused from his *Samādhic* slumber and speaking consciously to us. The mainstay of his final programme must have been the powerful support which he received from his moral and spiritual life, led continuously through a period of more than seventy years. Like Kumārila, he was the great connecting link between Mīmāṃsā and Vedānta. Born in Videha, there is no doubt that he must have reached Mukti of the Videha type!