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PREFACE (First edition)
Jaina authors have made remarkable contributions to the various domains of Indian literature in Sanskrit, Prakrit and other languages. The classical dignity and literary refinement which Tamil and Kannada languages have reached are entirely due to the pioneer work of Jaina authors in the field. Jainism being a religion of pre-eminently humanitarian values, these authors have left behind a noble heritage for the benefit of the society through their literary productions.
In the following pages a modest attempt has been made to take a survey of Jaina contributions to Tamil literature. Prof. A. Chakravarti is a great Tamil scholar; and there could not have been a better choice for this undertaking. This survey, we are sure, would be quite useful for preparing a systematic history of Tamil literature on the one hand and for a comparative study of Jaina literature in different languages on the other.
It was very kind of Prof. Chakravarti to have allowed the Editors to publish this excellent essay in the Jaina Antiquary; for this they are highly thankful to him. It is their earnest desire to publish similar monographs in English on the Jaina contributions to Sanskrit, Prakrit, Kannada, Telugu, Hindi and Gujarati literatures with the co-operation of different specialists.
Thanks are due to Dr. Raghavan, Madras University, who kindly added diacritical points on Tamil words in the press-copy. The Table of contents and Index are added by Dr. A. N. Upadhye hoping that they would heighten the referential value of the book.
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