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PREFACE
The presentation of a comparative picture of the Brāhmaņical epic-,purānic tradition and the Jaina mythology forms the subject-matter of the present work Relying mainly on the original sources, I have tried to throw light on the adaptability of popular Jainism to the Brāhmanıcal epic-purānic concepts of social, religious, ethical and cultural values The study was first taken up in a casual way During my studentship at the University of Calcutta, I had an opportunity to study some of the works of both the traditions As I read and studied the texts, I found several cases of exact parallelism in the ideas and expressions finding currency in the texts concerned Those points of similarity between the works of both the traditions impelled me to pursue my study in a planned and scientific way This is how I proceeded with the study of the present topic, the results of which have been presented in the following pages
But, while undertaking the work, I did little foresee the difficulties which a researcher of this type of work has to face One is often exposed to the error of omissions and commissions in proper investigation of the basic materials for such studies For, such an undertaking requires both intensive and extensive exploration of the source-materials in an objective way And, at needs no mention that the texts of the Brāhmanical tradition are numerous and gigantic and so indeed are the Jaina Purānic works, written in different periods in three different languages of the land. Naturally, I cannot claim my access to all sources of information However, quite conscious of my limita
