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OURSELVES
This special number of the Jain Journal on the occasion of the Mahavira Jayanti presents a panoramic view of Jainism over space and time as it is extant, despite all vandalism by man and ravages of nature, in the solid, semi-broken and delapidated stones-images, mounds, monasteries, columns caves or temples that are scattered throughout the sacred dust of Bharatavarsa, and as has been recorded in the works of a wide range of scholars who are being duly acknowledged in the end.
Apparently, this has been a hard and strenuous enterprise for which the editor claims no perfection. He is conscious that not all that could and should have been said about the heritage of Jainism has really been said within the few pages that follow. The limitation has been two-fold. One limitation has been imposed by the time-factor in which the whole thing had to be searched, collected, compiled and seen through the press but much more serious has been the second limitation in which not all that perhaps is the best existing record on Jainism could be mobilised. Though the best may be yet to come, within the aforesaid limits. has, however, been spared to present what could be the best for the reader's consumption. Doubtless, a complete account of heritage would fill up several volumes running into thousands of pages rather than being exhausted in about a hundred as in the present case. In fact, for the entire period of pre-history and history of India upto the advent of the Turko-Afgans at least, if not also for the later period, to the existing Hindu view of the state of things, there may be an equally, if not more, effective, fascinating and instructive Jaina version. Some Jaina scholars have attempted it piece-meal; but these enterprises, though commendable as pioneering efforts, are more a product of sentiment than of scientific outlook. Hence more research is needed and still
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