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THE BACKGROUND TO MONASTIC JURISPRUDENCE
Preamble
I am indeed grateful to you for the honour you have done me in inviting me to place before such a distinguished gathering my views regarding Jaina monastic jurisprudence. I am quite conscious of the fact that I happen to be as yet a novice in the field of Jainology when compared to the stalwarts in the field. I would, however, not offer an apology on that account. On the contrary, taking inspiration from the work of the giants in the field, I would try to follow their footsteps with youthful confidence.
II
Survey of Jaina Research You are all aware that the days when Jainism was taken to be an offshoot of Brahmanism are a thing of the past -- and rightly so. For in recent years, especially during the last fifty years, immense literature pertaining to Jainology has been brought to light. However, the first gleanings of Jainism in English came as early as 1809 when Col. MACKENZIE gave us “The Account of the Jainas". This was followed by a couple of others which, however, do not deserve any serious notice at all. It took nearly three quarters of a century after MACKENZIE, when BUHLER gave us his masterly presentation of "Indische Sekte der Jainas" in 1887. This seems to have opened up a new interest in Jaina studies and in the following decade or so critical editions of the canonical texts of the Jaina śvetāmbara Agama were brought out.
The opening up of the present century saw the development of scholarly interest in Jainology among foreign
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