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Preface
This monograph is prepared for the general reader on the occasion of the 2600th Birth Anniversary of Lord Mahāvīra held in April 2001. This booklet gives us very briefly the history of the rise, growth and development of Jainism in different parts of India and some of the basic tenets, such as, tolerance and ahimsā (Non-violence) in Jainism.
In preparing this monograph I have utilised some of my articles on Jainism. These are–The Philosophy of Mahāvīra in the Puşkara Muni'Abhinandana Grantha (Udaipur, 1979, 59-61), The Doctrines of Mahāvīra, Jain Journal (Vol. XXVII, 1993, 199-209); the review of a book entitled Jaina Path of Purification, in Jain Journal(Vol. XXVII, 1993, 55-60); Jainism Through the Ages, Jain Journal, (Vol. XXIX, 1995, 129-166), the foreword to Pearls of Jaina Wisdom by Dulichand Jain, and the introduction to my edition of Nyāyāvatāra (Calcutta, 1981), including my latest article on the Origin and Growth of Jainism and Some Doctrines of Jainism published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society, Vol. XLII, nos. 1-2, 2000, 728. All these articles form the nucleus of the present monograph. But it should be remembered at the same time that it is altogether a new book which has been entirely rewritten and very largely revised and augmented with new .materials. In many cases, I have freely incorporated some passages in my present monograph without mentioning their sources and without keeping them within the inverted commas.
Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my brotherin-law, Shri Barun Kumar Mukhopadhyay, IAS (Retd.), for going through my proofs and making necessary corrections here and there for the betterment of the language. I am also greatly indebted to my elder brother, Shri Chitta Ranjan Banerjee, M.Sc., for his encouragement for the completion
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