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Preface
Preface to First Edition
1. Need has been felt for a small book in simple English containing elementary knowledge of Jainism. Not only in the West, where lately interest in Jainism has increased considerably, but also amongst the younger generation of Indians knowing English, enquiry is frequently heard about some such book-"Can you suggest some small book on Jainism in simple English?"
2. No doubt, there are a number of books in English on Jainism specially by German indologists and other western scholars. Also some Indian authors like J. L. Jaini (Outline of Jainism, published in 1916), C. R. Jain (Fundamentals of Jainism, 1916) and others have written some good books on Jainism. However, such books are of a level too high to be easily intelligible to a layman. These are learned treatises following Jain sacred texts. These books assume that readers have familiarity with and have considerable basic knowledge of the subject of Jainism. This makes those books heavy reading for the beginners.
3. Similarly the language used in most of such books contains more than a sprinkling of Prakrit or Sanskrit terms relating to Jainism, the reason for which is not far to seek. It is obviously difficult to find the exact equivalents of a number of Prakrit or Sanskrit terms in English language. Thus tirthankar, siddha, dravya, darshan, karma, etc. are very difficult words to be exactly translated into equivalent English terms. The result is that reading of such books with heavy dosage of oriental terms becomes all the more difficult for a layman.
4. Such books, no doubt, are very useful as books of reference but do not attract the readership and these do not meet the demand mentioned in the beginning of this preface.
5. The reader is further discouraged by frequent references to ancient geography and mythology, which like elsewhere, contain material that might appear simple hyperbole to the unfamiliar and
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