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Preface with Self-assessment
Impartial self-assessment is one of the salient features in post-modernism. An attempt has been made in this direction in the present preface cum editor's note cum publisher's note. All the research-papers collected in this book are the outcome of the research done jointly with the help of the assistance given by Dr. Anita Bothara and Dr. Kaumudi Baldota, under the auspices of Seth H.N.Jaina Chair which is attached to the Dept. of philosophy, University of Pune. All the three roles viz. author, editor and publisher are played by Dr. Nalini Joshi, Hon. Professor, Jaina Chair.
While looking back to my academic endeavor of twenty-five years, up till now, a fact comes up glaringly the whole span of my life is continuous chain of rare opportunities in the field of Jaina Studies. In the two initial decades while working in the 'Comprehensive and Critical Dictionary of Prakrits', under the able editorship of Late Dr.A.M.Ghatage, I got acquaintance, with almost five hundred original Prakrit texts. Side by side, for the last twenty-five years, I got opportunity to teach Prakrit and especially Jaina Philosophical texts, through the Institute 'Sanmati-Teerth', a purely academic institute dedicated to Jaina Studies.
In July 2007, I was appointed an honorary professor of Seth H.N.Jaina Chair. Through the academic as well as informal discussions with my colleagues in the philosophy department, I got new perspectives, thought models and approaches to look at Jaina Studies. The discussions helped me a lot to re-understand what is (i) religious, (ii) ethical or moral, (iii) philosophical, (iv) epistemological, (v) metaphysical and ontological and (vi) spiritual - in the perspective of Jainaism.
When we started to scan and screen the various aspects of Jaina Studies on the comprehensive background of the whole Indian Philosophy, gave rise to many naive issues for further research. The aims and objectives of the esteemed Jaina Chair are threefold viz. (i) Research, (ii) Popular
Activities and (iii) Publication. The present collection of the research papers is the 8th publication of the Chair during last five years. The first part of the collected research papers was published in 2008. It is not noted down on the cover-page that it is 'Volume I' because it was not imagined at that time that we would be able to publish the second volume in 2012. The process of research is continuously going on in the Jaina Chair with my two experienced and dedicated research assistants, viz. Dr.Anita Bothara and Dr.Kaumudi Baldota. Nearly sixty research papers are prepared during the span of five years in Marathi, Hindi and English according to the requirement of the concerned seminar, conference or symposium. The first volume of the collected papers contains tri-lingual papers. The present collection contains the research papers written in English.
Out of the nineteen articles mentioned in the list of contents, the last two articles are informative in nature and contain very little research value as such. One article is useful in understanding the contribution of Prakrits to the Indian literature, in a very comprehensive manner. The other article highlights the poetic and cultural value of Gāhāsattasai. Both the articles were written on the demand of the prestigious and celebrated magazine viz. 'Heritage India'. Due to this reason, it was decided to include the articles in the present collection. All the first fifteen papers
