I am extremely happy to place before the scholars and readers this volume-Laukika-nyaya-sahasri-a collection of one thousand maxims (lokanyaya) with exposition in Sanskrit though late. It also contains an introduction giving a detailed account of all the earlier works on the subject till date for the first time. The work was completed long back and due to some unavoidable circumstance, its publication got delayed.
Now it is my pleasant duty to record my obligations to them who were directly or otherwise instrumental for the completion of this volume. Prof. P.G. Lalye was kind enough to provide me a copy of this volume and also guided me in all my academic pursuits. I feel fortunate to have his blessings always.
For the finalisation of the text I have taken help of many scholars and friends to whom I express my gratefulness. Prof. Ramesh Chandra Panda of BHU had gone through the volume and given valuable suggestions. I, on several occasions, had discussed with the late Prof. M.D. Pandit on some tricky grammatical issues in the text to whom I express my gratefulness.
My students Dr. Divakar Mohanty, Miss Kaveri Jadhab, both Asst. Professors in the CASS, Dr. Jojo Parecattil and Sri Rajendra Jain have helped me in correcting the proofs. May God bless them to prosper in life. Finally I thank Dr. Radheshyam Shukla of Pratibha Prakashan for accepting this volume for publication in their series.
One often listens from the day-to-day conversations of the Indian pundits the frequent employment of Lokanyayas which are very simple and common and some are too uncommon and difficult to understand. Further in all philosophical discussions, their employment is very frequent. As a matter of fact no philosophical discussion is possible without the employment of these nyayas. This is actually what has happened in case of all texts on Indian philosophy. Lokanyayas in whatever terms it may be translated speaks and treats in its essence some facts based on the universal truth. They are the outcome of long span of experience and close observations of nature, both living and non-living. Many abstract ideas/entities unintelligible otherwise, are made easy for the common man by suitably choosing and picking up an illustration of common experience to explain it.
As a student of Indian Philosophy, I used to come across several such lokanyayas. Further, while working for an article on kadamba golakanyaya (the maxim of the simultaneous blooming of flowers which is employed to explain the production of sound), I was surprised to notice that the extent of usage of these nyayas are so wide and not restricted to any particular domain of knowledge. It arose my interest to read these nyayas, seeing its varied implications more closely and systematically. In the meanwhile, I started taking a survey of available works and found that many attempts were already made in this direction in collecting these nyayas from a very early period. The task of collecting nyayas seems to have started in the beginning of 17th century and has been continued till the date. And thus, in different phases of time, different scholars have tried their hands to make available the nyayas prevalent and commonly used in oral trends in their time not recorded, without feeling the need of doing so, for, they were so simple and of common place. Time passed by and the nyayas, which were once so close to one's heart are forgotten and a need, is felt now to collect, understand those and explain for the benefit of others and the generation to come. In a way we are trying to revive our lost and forgotten wisdom as it were and teach the present generation the simple uses of nyayas.
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