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Foreword
The aim of the Dictionary of the Technical Terms of Jainism (Jaina laksanavali) is to provide at one place the different definitions of terms, which have been used in the works of Jainism during the last 2500 years. These definitions have been carefully collected from 351 authoritative works of Prakyta and Samskyta and are sometimes so detailed that they can be more appropriately called descriptions rather than definitions. There can be, however, no doubt about their authenticity, because they are taken verbatim from the Scriptures.
The technical terms, included in this Dictionary, can be, broadly speaking, classified into five categories : (i) Terms which are exclusively used in the writings of Jainism,
e.g. rjusūtranaya, avaya etc. ii) Terms which are used in both, the Jaina and the non-Jaina
systems, but the Jainas use them in altogether a different sense, e.g. adharma etc. Terms which are used in Jaina and non-Jaina systems in more
or less the same sense, e.g. ahimsa, asatya etc. (iv) Terms which are used in Jaina and non-Jaina systems in a
sense which is basically the same but the philosophical
concepts, they convey, differ, e.g. aņu, apavarga etc. (v) Terms which are used in day-to-day language also, but which
have been adopted by the Jain thinkers to give a peculiar meaning, e.g. arambha, upayoga etc.
All the categories, mentioned above, can be included under one category of technical terms, because they have been adopted or invented by the specialists to give precise expression to certain notions and they convey that notion only to a person who is familiar with the subject and not merely with the language. Though the etymologies of such words are also sometimes helpful in their understanding and are sometimes given by the ancient authors, (e.g. see indriya (p. 233) yet these seldom convey the real sense.
In fact, the words of a language are only symbols, conveying a notion, which has to be understood mentally rather than expressed verbally. It is perhaps with reference to those who stick only to the literal dictionary meaning of a word and cannot mentally picture the notion for which it really stands, that the Rgvedic poets declared : 'one sees not the speech even though seeing it ; one hears Her not
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