When Justice Sri.V.S.Malimath, former Chief Justice of Kerala took over as the Chairman of the General Body of the International School of Dravidian Linguistics from 1994, it gave me enough time to discuss with him the need for an introduction to Saiva Siddhanta and Vira Saivism, so that, their mutual relationship and differences can be brought out. The monographs of S.C.Nandimath on Vira Saivism in Kannada and in English were brought to my notice and later the Ph.D. thesis entitled "The Theology of the Doctrine of the Saiva Siddhanta and Vira Saivism" submitted in 1930 to the London University was also made known to me. Soon Dr. Suvarna, daughter of S.C.Nandimath who is in U.K. was contacted by Justice Sri.V.S.Malimath who has married his eldest daughter Ms. Prema Devi and the xerox copy of the seventy year old thesis was received by me through the courtesy of Justice Malimath.
Reading through the manuscript of the Ph.D. thesis, I found it to be well documented, reliable and pleasant to read. Its enormous value to the world of Scholarship in South Indian philosophy was felt by me.
But the xerox copy was smudged in several pages. The continuity of matter in some places, for example on p. 249 of the thesis is not found. The choice before us was whether we should wait for a better copy which in the immediate future is not possible or to carefully read the xeroxed copy with the help of a magnifying glass and minimize the errors and get it published early. We preferred the second option.
The bad shape of the Manuscript was made known to Prof.M.M.Kalburgi, the Vice-Chancellor of the Kannada University who arranged with Dr.C.R. Yaravinatelimath to help me reading several titles of the works quoted by Nandimath with the help of the Kannada and English monographs published by Nandimath based on his thesis. When I was in Humpi for the Convocation, Prof. M.E.Manickavasagom, the Senior Proof Reader and Editor made use of the magnifying glass and improved the long list of Agamas and foot-notes. So also Dr.C.J.Roy, now at Kottayam who took interest in this work and looked at the proof sheets and brought the foot-notes under each page instead of leaving them as a separate volume as found in the xeroxed thesis. Some gaps found in the foot-notes in the printed pages are also found in the original and we were afraid of filling them up without the author's approval.
The objects of the International School of Dravidian Linguistics is to explore the commonness in the four major language areas in culture, language, religion etc. The present work of S.C.Nandimath has brought out the reverence shown by the Kannada poets for the 63 Nayanmars of Tamil and the mutual dependence of Vira Saivism and Saiva Siddhanta. The Vira Saiva Mutt in Tamil Nadu though now dysfunctional had a glorious past. The work Prabulinga Leelai was avidly read by the students of Tamil literature during my student days. The Pandarams who live in considerable numbers in Tamil Nadu and Kerala keep alive the tenets of Vira Saivism in the midst of the Tamils and Malayalis in several towns and villages. The book being an important document, Justice Malimath was requested to contribute a forword which he has done with great care.
For the printing of the thesis the grant provided by the Government of Tamil Nadu was utilized. I thank Hon.Dr.M.Karunanidhi, the mature Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, the affectionate Minister for Education Prof.M.Anbazhagan and the dedicated Minister for Tamil Culture, Dr.M. Tamilkudimakan and ever active Director of Tamil Development, Dr.M.Rajendran for their liberal help.
The book of S.C.Nandimath which is a classic is now placed before the world of scholarship for its kind evaluation.
Publication of the Thesis seventy years after it was written by Dr.S.C.Nandimath and the foreword being written by his own son-in-law may arouse curiosity in the mind of the readers. A glimpse of the life of Dr. Nandimath may provide the answer.
Dr. Nandimath was a simple, urbane, humble and self-effacing person. His great compassion and concern for the less fortunate and uneducated people inspired him to dedicate his entire life in the cause of their education. When he returned from England after obtaining the doctorate, he was offered a lucrative job of Deputy Director of Archives, which he politely declined and chose to be an humble teacher in a High School at Belgaum. When time came for his marriage, he told the lady whom he was to marry that she should not be under the illusion that this London returned highly educated person would be in a position to give her a life of luxury as he had chosen to be an humble teacher to educate the masses.
He was prominently responsible to establish Lingaraj College, the first private college in Bombay Karnataka area and became its founder Principal. His great sense of duty can be gauged by this one incident: The newly built Hostel building for the college students was to be inaugurated by the then Governor of Bombay, Lord Brabourne. In the early hours on that day, his father who was living with him expired. He told all his family members not to divulge the news about the death until he returned after completion of the function. He then offered Namaskar to his father and proceeded to the college. He maintained remarkable composure throughout the function that none could suspect about his bereavement. It is only after completion of the programme that he returned home and performed the last rites.
As he could not compromise on his principles with the Management of the college, he resigned. He then proceeded to Bagalkot and established the Basaveshwar College under the auspices of Basaveshwar Vidya Vardhak Sangh and became its Principal. In those days parents were reluctant to send their daughters to college fearing that it is not safe for girls to travel alone to the college. Dr. Nandimath found the answer by hiring Tongas to take the girl students to the college and himself paying the fare. That was his concern and commitment for women's education.
During his eventful career he held almost all offices in the field of education, as Professor, Principal, Member of Senate, Syndicate, Academic Council, Dean, Registrar and Vice-Chancellor.
Dr. Nandimath was an extraordinary person and a great scholar in Sanskrit, Kannada, Pali, Prakrt and Aradhamagadhi. His field of research ranged from Philosophy, Theology, Religion, History, Textual criticism, Inscriptions, Linguistics to Poetics. His passion for Research over-rode his involvement as an educator and educationalist in building up educational institutions of quality and accessible to poor people in backward areas of North Karnataka. He has produced a valuable treasure of literature and has left his mark of historic authenticity in critical comprehension in each of his writings.
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