It is with a sense of duty rather than with a feeling of mere pleasure that I respond to the call of the authors in presenting before the public this small poem entitled 'Sree Neelakanta Thirtha Swami Charya'. As a result of the recent revival of Sanskrit study and the consequent researches of Indian Antiquity, the Mental culture which the Aryans had then Comparatively attained to in various de partments of Science, art and literature, shines forth in unparalleled splendour and presents a perspective view prominent, wonderful and menacing to any modern scholar who looks back carefully at the phases of ancient India.
The light thrown upon the great mental culture of the Ancient Aryans by the researches of modern scholars interest-ed in the antiquities of India strikes with aim and wonder the most Sceptical of moderns and makes him pause and admire the intellectual Maturity of the very remote and ancient people of India at a time when the forefathers of the pioneers of modern civilisation were sunk in the lowest stages of primitive barbarism. The civilised nations of the world have now begun to recognise the importance of this fact so much so that they do not regard themselves to have completed the necessary course of instruction in several sciences and arts until they have made a comparative study of what our mother India has thought out upon those subjects. The influence direct or indirect of ancient Indian culture may be markedly traced in the development of the most important branches of knowledge for example in the sciences of philology and philosophy and in the arts of Medicine and education.
'The Indians' in the estimation of no less person than Professor MacDonell, 'are the only division of the Indo-European family which has created a great national religion -Brahminism -and a great angloreligion-Budhism' and 'has developed independently several systems of philosophy which bear evidence of high speculative powers,' as a result of which 'their intellectual life has all along been dominated by religious thought than that of any other race' and 'their literature shows every step in the evolution of religion and philosophy.'
As regards the system of education we are glad to note the growing tendency in the Civilised world to realise the beneficial results accruing from a real teacher's close intimacy with his pupils. The recent hostelsystem much talked of and much fought for by modern educationists is nothing but a later outgrowth based upon scientific principles of the ancient custom of the denoted Brahmachary's living in the Guru's Mut. In such a Brahmacharyasrama the disciple on his part will have deep reverence for his accepted Guru and consequently implicit faith in his teachings. The effect of this pure Guru Bhakthya deep reverence on the part of the disciple to the preceptor -is to engender in the disciple's heart a zeal for know ledge, an enthusiasm for perseverance and a gratification in assimilated study three essential items, the importance of which can on no account be underrated in any system of education however civilised it may profess to be.
The present Khandakavya (small poem) is the out flow of such pure and real Guru Bhakthy filled to the brim in the hearts of two cultured disciples towards their religious preceptor Brahma Sree Neelakanta Thirtha Swamy the well known Scholar and Vedanti of Kerala. It is a bio-graphical sketch of this eminent person in Sanskrit Verses and consists of two parts each part comprising two sargas respectively. The first part is wholly composed by Srijut M. K. Narayana Pillai poet and Ayurvedic Doctor. I need not dilate upon his literary and poetic talents in as much as he is known as the beloved student so far as the study of Sanskrit is concerned of Old Raja Raja Verma Dev of Parappanad and has already establish ed a reputation in his poetic work entitled 'Sadguru Sarvaswam' as 'Resikajana Manorenjanasaralareethy.' Narayana Kavi the author of the first part describes therein briefly the salient incidents in the life history of the Guru from his birth on-wards and from the spirit of the Bhakthi and the enthusiasm with which he accomplishes this we may be justified in inferring that though he would like to have embellished it with supplementary Sargas of his own, the true spirit of self-renunciation & communion of interest prevailed over him and made him yield to the wishes of his Codisciple Sivaprasad to finish it. The second part therefore is solely supplementary and describes in detail the Thirthatanoms - pilgrimages to the sacred places of India which the Guru to complete his education undertook to perform with the kind permission of his preceptor. That Sivaprasad is also actuated by the same amount of Bhakthy pure and sincere and equally skilled in the art of poetic description will be evident from his Slokas of the Second part. In addition to the intrinsic merits of the book another noteworthy fact to be mention ed in this connection is that this production is a sure index of the growing recognition of value and importance of true Biographical study the absence of which from our Oriental literatures was a deplorable want keenly felt by modern Scholars.
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