A Homage to Dr. Mainkar: A Glimpse into The Research Work Done Under His Guidance (An Old and Rare Book)

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One can hardly imagine a more tragic irony than that a teacher should be required to write a Foreword to a volume commemorating his student. But this is what fate has ordained for me to do and that too, by a sad coincidence, in the year in which Mainkar and I had planned to celebrate the golden jubilee of our first acquaintance. When I began my teaching career in June 1932, as a fresh lecturer of Sanskrit in the Fergusson College, Poona, Mainkar was one of the first batch of my student. We had planned to bring together at Poona, in June 1982 as many scholars of that batch as possible and re-live the youthful, blissful, nostalgic days of fifty years ago on the Fergusson College premises. Of coverse I did not pursue the idea because Mainkar was not going to be there. And what shall I write in this Foreword? If I wrote about the happy times which I was privileged to spend at Mainkar's residence in Delhi or Bombay that would be too personal and decidedly painful; and if I wrote about his eminent contributions to Sanskrit studies, that would be too formal and manifestly redundant.

To say that Mainkar's untimely death has been a great loss to Sanskrit studies will not adequately reflect the true poignancy of the Situation. Those who had been academically associated with him will continue to feel the void as they go on doing their own work. Mainkar was not temperamentally inclined to specialize in any specific branch of Indology. But the scope of his interests was noticeably wide, and his contributions particularly to Vedic studies, Vedanta, and Sanskrit Drama have been admittedly quite illuminating Incidentally, I often goaded him to be more assertive and emphatic in his writing, but he wisely preferred restraint and moderation. I do not want to perpetrate a truism by saying that Mainkar was a highly successful teacher but i cannot resist mentioning the paternal care and solicitude which I have often seen him (actively and willingly aided by Mrs. Mainkar) bestow upon his students, quite a few of whom even lived with him, without being made to feel any compunction with a view to competing their theses under his direct whole-time guidance. It was again this trait of his character which made him a sympathetic and ever-helpful administrator.

If I was asked to summarize Mainkar's way of life in one single word, I would use the word, Bhakti or earnest devotion to God devotion to his father (I have seldom seen him go out without having first bowed down before his father's portrait) and devotion to his work. To this I am tempted also to add devotion to his teachers. To speak for myself Mainkar never failed to vouchsafe to me the respectful and affectionate consideration due to a venerable teacher. And though I knew that I did not wholly deserve it, I did not also discountenance it, for as his teacher, I wanted to become entitled to take partial credit for his many achievements, relying on the dictum: sisyaprakarso yasasc gurunam.

I was glad when, after his retirement from the Bombay University, Mainkar joined the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute and took charge of its Post graduate and Research Department. All of us were looking forward to his long and fruitful tenure at the institute but that was not to be! In Mainkar's ease, the use of the Phrase 'die in harness' would not be merely conventional. On September 16, 1981, he and I were discussing, at the Institute, with an American colleague some project of academic collaboration, till late in the afternoon. And late at night on that day I unexpectedly received a phone call announcing his death.

A true teacher lives on through this own work; but he also lives on through the work of his students. So far as Mainkar is concerned, one need not entertain any doubts in respect of the former eventuality. And I welcome the present volume as a satisfying guarantee in respect of the latter.

The sudden death of Dr. Mainkar was a great shock to all his friends and colleagues and particularly to his students to whom be was much more than a mere teacher. Here is an attempt to dedicate to his beloved memory this small work comprising of short resume of the various theses for Doctorate degree and different post-Doctorate projects completed under his able guidance. The articles, unless mentioned otherwise, are based on the Ph.D theses of the respective students and are arranged under different heads as Epics and Smrtis, Pali and Prakrit, Religion and Philosophy literature and Criticism and Sociology. Even this short collection bears sufficient testimony to late DR. Mainkar's versatile scholarship and his profound interest in different branches of Indology. Through a few of the these have been already punlished in book form, the articles based on these theses have been included here with a view to highlighting the glorious personality of the Guide. Still the picture cannot be said to be complete as the topics of a few theses like Panini explained and defended' Comparative study of Upanisads and Tiruvaya Moli' study of Anadavardhana adn Abhinavagupta etc. could not be covered in this volume.

Our thanks are due to all the contributors for their co-operation. We are grateful to the authorities of the Bombay University for allowing the University Press to print the volume. We specially mention our thanks to Shri J.N. Creado, I/e Controller Printing and Stationery, University of Bombay and his staff for bringing out the volume in such a short time and with such affine get up.

We express our sincere thanks to Tirumala Tirupati Deva sthanam, Tirupati for their financial assistance and particularly to Prof. K. K. A. Venkatachari, Director Anathacharya Indo-logical Research Institute, Bombay, Because of whom this help could be available.

The foreword to this value by professor R. N. Dandekar, the teacher of late Dr. Mainkar has a great significance. Late Dr. Mainkar always help him in high esteem. We express our sincere gratitude to Professor Dandekar for his Foreword.

What students owe to their guru cannot be expressed properly in words. This is the Kusumanjali, paid by the students at the feet of their revered departed Guru. The scope of the volume is thus very limited and the volume cannot be named as commemorative Volume which is supposed to be exhaustive by nature.