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FOREWORD
[ To the first edition ] Lord Mabāvīra, like His contemporary Lord Buddha, was born at a time when India was in a great ferment. The incorporation of the Vrātyas, or nomadic Aryans, into the orthodox fold, produced a revolution,-a revolution in ideas, speculations, language, dress, customs and manners,-in short, everything connected with ancient Indian life, India at that time was thoroughly caste ridden, the caste system had become inflexibly rigid, sacrifices were the order of the day, and these magical rites were accompanied by animal slaughter on a large scale. The sacrifices, with their cooked meat, had become extremely popular, and the Brāhmanas had become supreme.
Lord Mabāvīra, like Lord Buddha, the Vrātyas and the materialistic philosophers of that age, challenged everything that Orthodoxy had set up in the name of
