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PREFACE
My studies of Jurisprudence, the Indian Penal Code and of criminal cases decided by me had convinced that the vow of Sallekhana as propounded in the Jaina scriptures is not suicide. As this view is contrary to the one held by many foreign and Indian Scholars, I wrote an essay on the subject and showed it to my esteemed friend Late Dr. A. N. Upadhye who was a scholar of international repute in the study of Jainology and Prakrit. He suggested that I could look into inscriptions published in the volumes of Carnatica Epigraphica regarding the observance of the vow by numerous saints, nuns, Śrāvakas and Śrāvikās and to similar practices prescribed by other religions. I worked on his most invaluable suggestions. These lectures are the results of my maiden labours on a religious principle whose scope and nature are widely misunderstood. I do hope that they will dispell all doubts and establish that there are fundamental differences between suicide and Sallekhanā.
I am grateful to Late Dr. A. N. Upadhye for all his assistance. My grateful thanks are also due to Shri D. D. Malvania, the ex-Director of the L. D. Institute of Indology, Ahmedabad, but for whose initiative and devotion to the Institute, these lectures would not have received the prestigious publicity and publication under the auspicious of the said Institute.
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