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PREFACE
As soon as I became acquainted with the second part of that great work, the part that deals with the Literature of the Jains I came to have a natural desire to get the portion translated into either Hindi or Gujarati. I was not, however, able to find a proper Hindi or Gujarati knowing student who would at the same time be so well versed in the German language as to be able to correctly grasp the spirit of the original and honestly render it into the Indian language. I thought of and actually commenced learning the German language myself, but could not make much progress partly because I was not able to give to the study the necessary time, being busy with my own literary studies and researches, and partly on account of the want of a proper guide. The failure to make a great headway in the study of German language consumed me, on the contrary, with a curious but intensively keen wish to visit Germany and quench my insatiable thirst for knowledge by establishing a direct contact with the intellectual luminaries of that country. To my great amazement and delight I was, by the grace of God, actually able to fulfil that wish and to visit Germany in the year 1928.
I had at the time no good knowledge of any European language, for the study of English I had for political reasons abhorred and detested and my progress with German had been highly inadequate. In Germany I understood for the first time that it had been a mistake to run away from English in that way. I began learning both English and German at the same time and made fair progress with both, more perhaps with English, as I had had some previous knowledge of that language, which I had then begun for political reasons to detest.
My study of the German language was rudely disturbed, for I began to be impelled by a desire to take part in the national movement and to speak on national and cultural matters. The tempo of events drove me back to India sooner than I had planned to return and in obedience to my cherished ambition I courted imprisonment by
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