Sanatan Dharmoddharah (with Hindi Commentary)

GANGANATHAJHA-GRANTHAMĀLĀ [Vol. 35]

PANDITA ŚRI UMAPATI DWIVEDI’S

SANATANADHARMODDHĀRAḤ [PART ONE ]

CHIEF-EDITOR PROF. HARERAM TRIPATHI VICE-CHANCELLOR

EDITED BY PROF. VACHASPATI DWIVEDI

Ex-Head, Department of Education Sampurnanand Sanskrit Vishvavidyalaya Varanasi

गङ्गानाथझा-ग्रन्थमाला [ ३५ ]

श्रीमन्महर्षिगौतमवंशोत्पन्नसरयूपारीणपण्डितेन श्रीकाशीवासिना उमापतिद्विवेदिना विरचितः

सनातनधर्मोद्धारः भाषाभावप्रभाटीकासमेतः प्रथमः खण्डः

कुलपतेः प्रो. हरेरामत्रिपाठिमहोदयस्य पुरोवाचा विभूषितः

प्रधानसम्पादकः प्रो. हरेरामत्रिपाठी कुलपतिः सम्पूर्णानन्दसंस्कृतविश्वविद्यालयस्य वाराणसी

सम्पादक: आचार्य श्रीवाचस्पतिद्विवेदी अध्यक्षचरः, शिक्षाशास्त्रविभागस्य सम्पूर्णानन्दसंस्कृतविश्वविद्यालये वाराणस्याम्

FOREWORD

The author craves leave to present of the public the following treatise which he undertook at the especial desire of the Hon’ble Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya of Allahabad six years ago. The book (Sanatan-dharmoddhar) as its name implies, seeks to awaken a real interest in the study of the ancient or eternal religion of India and to bring about its revival. An earnest attempt has been made to deal with a vast and varied range of topics connected with the essentials of Hinduism. In doing so the author lays no claim to originality. He was followed as far as possible the letter and spirit of the precepts and injunctions contained in the immortal writings of Veda Vyasa Maharshi Jaimini, Kumaril Swami, Shankar Swami and others. For ordinary students of Sanskrit lore and aspirants after spiritual knowledge, the abstruse theistic aphorisms and intellectual subtleties which abound in the works of these sages are most difficult to grasp. A close and systematic study of these texts, which alone could afford a full insight into the basal principles of the Sanatan or Vedic religion, is rarely attempted by the present-day pandits or professors in this country. Their tastes and inclination run into antiquated grooves and cannot favor a change. The number of indigenous scholars and exponents of the Shastri knowledge is thinning day by day and the old theistic ideas and spiritual conceptions are losing their hold on the popular mind. Hence to treatise aiming at resuscitation and popularisation of the religious ideals of the Hindus would come up to modern requirements, if the writer relied merely on authoritative scriptural quotations in explaining and elucidating his points. What is required in this age of growing skepticism and unbelief is to apply the test of

reasoning and logic to religious theories based on Shastri texts. The author has invariably borne this in mind and endeavored on many occasions to explain the subject-matter in hand in the form of a catechism. In venturing out lay before his countrymen the result of his lifelong study and research in the domain of Hindi religion and ethics, it is hoped that the garb in which the present work is offered will be acceptable and convenient to the general public. For students and lovers of Sanskrit, the book written up as it is in plain Sanskrit prose would be interesting and congenial reading, whereas a free Hindi version appended to the original texts would enhance their value to those who do not possess a knowledge of Sanskrit. It is intended to bring out an English rendering of the work also at some future date.

The book from it very nature extends into large dimensions and it to be published in four volumes, each covering more or less four hundred pages of printed matter. Part I is here with presented to the public in the confident hope that its contents would inspire in the average reader an intelligent interest in and respect for the religion of his ancestors and afford him a foretaste of what is to follow in the succeeding volumes. A comprehensive Index of contents both in English and Hindi has been attached to the first volume to indicate the nature and range of topics comprised in the whole treatise.

It has been suggested that some of the most important social problems of the day viz, caste restrictions and caste exclusivism, foreign travel and sea-crossing, child marriage and remarriage of widows, falling within the purview of a work like this, might well have found a place in it. The author is afraid that such social questions would have imported an element of acrimonious controversy into purely religious issues and marred the harmony of a book that shuns sectarian

methods. These are however subjects that deserve a full and careful consideration from a Shastri standpoint and the author has a mind to bring out separate pamphlets dealing with these problems if his declining age and health should permit of his bestowing the requisite time and labor on the task.

Umapati Dwivedi

Benares : May, 1912

alias Pandit Nakchhed Ram Dube, Misra-Pokhara Benares City.