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PREFACE.
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In humbly placing the present book entitled An EPITOME OF JAINISM on the table of the World-library, a few words of explanation by way of an apologia are, it appears, needed to justify the claims, it lays upon the valuable time of its various readers. And we may state at the outset that it is not an attempt to supersede any of the modern treatises on Jainism. Its claim to attention, if it has any, arises from the fact that it is but a compilation forming an epitome having for its basis the most orthodox principles, doctrines and tenets as found in the Jain original works of authority and high antiquity, or promulgated on the subject by Jain speculative writers and conformed to by accurate thinkers in their spiritual inquiries.
But to connect together these detached fragments of a subject never yet treated as a whole, from the real Jain point of view, in these days of transition under Western refinement; to harmonise the different
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portions of the seemingly discordant notes
