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INTRODUCTION.
Jain literature, co:uprising as it does almost all the branches that are characterestic of ancient Indian literature, holds no insignificant niche in the gallery of that literature. It is considerable even as it is at present, and was more so in former times. This is not the proper place to enumerate the great writers and their works that constitute the glory of that literature. The fact that the Jain writers had flourished in great abundance in times gone by, is evident from the vast stock of literature that has survived to this day, though it is yet in an unexplored state. Their eminence in subject matter as well as language is manifest to those who are conversant with it.
Along with Indian literature at large, Jain literature too has been a participator in the unhappy fate it met with at the hands partly of alien bigotry, and partly of mutual religious jealousy and from the peculiarities of the climate. There was a time when there was no other alternative to secure the very existence of such literature but that of burying it in subterranean archives. The very method employed for tbe safety of the works became later on instrumental in further diminishing the stock, and that at a time when there was cot the least
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