Jain Shwetambar Conference Herald 1915 01

Author(s): Mohanlal Dalichand Desai
Publisher: Jain Shwetambar Conference

Page 8

The Sacred Books of the Jainas. GENERAL EDITOR:
S. C. Ghosal M. A. B. L Saraswati Kavya-Tirtha Vilyabhusan Bharti ----
Principal, Sanskrit College-CALCUTTA.
( Bibliotheca Jainica ). Dear Sir,
That knowledge is power is a trite saying. All civilized peoples have raised knowledge to the height of adoration. Minerva of the Greeks is the lovely analogue of our own well-beloved Sarasvati. For the Jainas Sarasvati is the sweet warder of the immortal love that emanates as the wordless speech of the Jinas, the conquerors of flesh and Karmas. Learning precedes conduct among the Jainas, as right preception precedes and is indeed a sine qua non of right learning therefore from the general as well as the special point of view the claims of knowledge come first. Our people today are obscure and with out the political and social influence which was wielded by their forebearers. This going down is due to our loss of knowledge as much as to our lack of organisation and the sterling quality of sincerity without wbich neither nations nor individuals ever gained any eminence.
It is a sad fact that of all Indian Literatures the Jaina Literature is the last of least studied. And the Jainas are well paying the penalty of their books coming last under the appreciative and in a way sympathetic, though critical, eye of Europeon and other scholars. The curious result is this. The Jaina religion is misunderstood and misrepresented, Jaina History is scoffed at as imaginary fables, whereas even the myths of other peoples seem to embody a core of historical facts of great antiquity. An indirect consequence is that the Jainas are put down as extra gullibles subject to unlearned superstitions and medieval priestcraft. Modern oriental research, however, is settling matters straight a little. Books hitherto considered to be the words of non-Jainas are coming to be recognised as the work of Jaina authors. The truth of Jaina traditions is being established surely, though slowly. Jaina books are widely read and studied more. There is even an everwidening circle of men and women in the East and West, to