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FOREWORD
Historical scholarship in India has made considerable progress, yet many unresolved problems continue to face the students of our past history. Paucity of source material and inadequate assessment of the canonical and other literature have limited the scope and extent of enquiry. For the ancient period of Indian history, in the absence of conventional sources such as chronicles, official records and other documents, our basis of knowledge gets confined to religious writings, literature and epigraphic evidence. These data might provide adequate frame work for the understanding of cultural and social developments in that age, but certainly are unable to throw sufficient light on chronology or sequence of events with any preciseness. For this reason even today we are unable to fix the dates of rulers or dynasties precisely, or to indicate definitely the age of leaders of thought and great religious reformers. Because of this handicap, the study of the history of ideas is also considerably affected and it may not be possible always to determine the relationship between one set of ideas and another with any definiteness. This drawback has led to speculations and considerable confusion and vagueness in the interpretation of history of India.
Two mighty movements flourished about the same time in one region and influenced the mind and behaviour of large masses of people both in India and abroad. Their progenitors, Mahavira and Buddha, acquired fame in later ages and have left behind them the two religions, Jainism and Buddhism, which had great impact on the life and thought of the people in India. Yet, unfortunately, our knowledge about them is still meagre and has been derived from not very direct and unimpeachable sources.
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