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Colette Caillat has made a great contribution to a wider knowledge of the Jaina religion and literature. She also emphasized the links between Jaina and Buddhist traditions, despite their independence, on the linguistic as well as on the doctrinal side. Her doctoral thesis about the Atonements in the Ancient Ritual of the Jaina Monks (Les expiations dans le rituel ancien des religieux jaina) remains a masterpiece, since she was able to explain in a luminous style, a complicated doctrine in a wider context. Atonements in the Ancient Ritual of the Jaina Monks, is a lucid analysis of the svetambara monastic books of discipline (Chedasutras).
On the other hand, her DLitt. thesis Paris, 1965, translated into English as Her ‘second' thesis, a minute philological study of one portion of a text of this class, was in part published in, 1966 Drei Chedasutras des Jaina-Kanons Ayaradasao Vavahara, Nisiha. Colette Caillat's outstanding study of atonement (prayascitta) has become the standard reference. She presents the subject in its general Indian context, through confrontations with Brahmanical and Buddhist counterparts, respectively in the Vinaya and the Dharmasastras, and as a component of Jain monastic life. Thus her discussion of atonements, the central one of which is confession (Skt. alocana, Pkt. aloyana), is preceded by an exposition on the hierarchical organization of the community as depicted in the Cheda sutras.
The important idea is that atonements are not meant as a punishment, but rather as a form of guidance to help the culprits to improve. This work reveals Colette Caillats sympathetic attitude and humanistic nature.
Her critical edition of the Candavejjhaya (La Prunellecible) Prakirnakas. 'miscellaneous' group of texts, its French translation and the learned notes are a testimony of sound scholarship in lucid style.
*Fasting unto death' (samlekhana), for which the Prakirnakas are of primary importance, was one of her major themes પ૬૨ + ૧લ્મી અને ૨૦મી સદીના જૈન સાહિત્યનાં અક્ષર-આરાધકો
