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PREFACE TO ‘ THE ESSENCE OF BUDDHISM ’— THIRD EDITION
The author of this book was Prof. P. Lakshmi Narasu. While I have great pleasure in introducing this book to the public I confess that I had not met the author and known very little about his personal life. I have tried to obtain whatever details that could be gathered about his personal life and literary work. For this purpose, I have found Dr, Pattabhi Sitaramayya to be the source. He knew Prof. Narasu personally and was a friend of his. I give below the main facts in the life of Prof. Narasu as given to me by Dr. Pattabhi.
Prof. P. Lakshmi Narasu, B.A., was a prodigy of the last century. He was a graduate in Physics from the Madras Christian College. From being a tutor and demonstrator, he rose to the position of an Assistant Professor by 1897 and was given full charge of Physics and Chemistry for the B. A. classes in 1898-99, during the absence of Prof. Moffatt, the permanent Professor of Physics on leave. Prof. Moffatt was a raw youth who was appointed to the professorship over the head of Prof. Narasu who had already won his distinction in Physics in the sphere of wireless telegraphy – which in the nineties of the last century as yet in its infant stage of progress. During the years 1898 and 1899 Prof. Narasu, as he used to be called in those days, was already an Examiner in Physics and Chemistry — both for B. A. and M. A. Examinations. Prof. Narasu was particularly strong in Dynamics. Once when an alteration arose over the correctness of a question in Dynamics, Prof. Wilson, a hot-headed Englishman who was Professor of Chemistry in the Presidency College, Madras and Chairman of the Board of Examiners in Physics and Chemistry, questioned the correctness of the view expressed by Prof. Narasu regarding some problem in Dynamics. Prof. Narasu took up the challenge at once. ‘ Do you want to teach me, Mr. Narasu’ asked the arrogant Wilson to which in reply Prof. Narasu retorted -after working out the problem — ‘ I am glad I am teaching Prof. Wilson something in Dynamics.’ The incident is of interest to us fifty years after its occurrence, because it shows