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JANUARY, 1973
159
Buddha lived in about the same time and moved in about the same region they never met each other Under the circumstances, it should not be wholly inconceivable that they would not care much to take note of each other's views, and this tradition persisted even later. To quote the author,
“Contrary to the general belief, the data on Jainism available in Buddhist literature are very'meagre. Though contemporaneous, the Buddhist records have only made scanty references to both Jainism and its Tirthankara or Tirthankaras. These references are distributed all over the voluminous literature and the search for them has been a very arduous task whose magnitude and difficulty may not be very clear to an ordinary reader of these Chapters.”
In such a situation, to glean through the vast field of Buddhist literature to find references therein to Jaina concepts must have been a task of great patience and perseverance on the part of the author, and the reviewer has no hesitation to say that the task has been accomplished with a great skill. The notes running over 48 pages plus bibliography at the end show the enormity of the job. Since the book will be of great interest to scholars both Indian and foreign, it is expected that the production of the book attains a good qualitative standard, which it has not.
--K. C. L.
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