Introduction to Jainism

Author(s): Rudi Jansma, Sneh Rani Jain
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

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sacred places in Central and South India. I owe it to her, and therefore indirectly to her guru Sri Vidhyāsagarji Mahārāja, that I was able to go beyond the field of theory and become intensively acquainted with the life of Jain spiritual people in practice. Thanks to her and her friends I have been able to visit and take photographs in locations to which outsiders are not normally admitted. I mostly have her, and the monks with whom she brought me into contact, to thank for the information, including photos, in this book which can not be found in any existing literature. This applies especially to subjects concerning archeology, art, yoga, and meditation. On these subjects she wrote chapters 7 and 10 for this book. I also wish to thank all those who have read and commented on my English translation of the text originally written in Dutch, notably Dr. S.L. Gandhi, Dr. S.R. Jain, Dr. Kusum Jain of Rajasthan University, Mr. Surendra Bothra of the Prakrit Bharati Academy, and Mr. D.R. Mehta, Founder and Chief Patron of the same institution. Mr. Bothra kindly provided the section “Jainism and environment” in chapter 3 (Ahimsā). And last but not least I thank David Pratt for reading and correcting my English. I am indebted to Mr. Mehta for the publication of this book in English.
The helpfulness and hospitality I received from the Indians were like an inexhaustible ocean.
- Rudi Jansma, Laipur, 21 March 2006
Very worth reading is, for example: P.S. Jaini, The Jaina Path of Purification, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1979; A thorough and very clear study of Jainism is by Helmuth von Glasenapp: Jainism, an Indian Religion of Salvation, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Pvt. Ltd. Delhi 1999 (German original 1925); That Which Is Tattvārtha Sūtra; Classical Jain Manual for Understanding the True Nature of Reality, of Umāsvāti (Tatia, Nathmal, transl.) HarperCollins Publishers, London etc., 1994; Another translation of the Tattvārthadhigama Sūtra, or its Digambara counterpart, the Sarvärthasiddhi, has been published in India by Pujyapāda Devanandi, Bharatiya Jnanapitha, Delhi, 1989 (4th ed.) For all Jains this is one of the most important texts (sometimes referred to as “the Jain Bible) in which the cosinological, biological and karmic doctrines are given in all their detail. See lists of English literature on the internet, e.g. http://www.jainworld.com/jainbooks/jainbooks.htm
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