Jainism in Buddhist Literature

Author(s): Bhagchandra Jain Bhaskar
Publisher: Alok Prakashan

Page 11

( 6 )
"this work.
As a Jain I was conversant with my own religion and Vidyodaya, being a revered seat of Buddhist learning, the venerable scholar-monks who guided me in my researches "knew all about Buddhism. This, indeed, is a very rare opportunity for one who wants to study Buddhism. That is why I did not mind giving up half-way the work, I was doing at Benares Hindu University as a University Grant Commisssion Scholar, on the Saddhamapundarika.
This thesis represents only the beginning of a series of comparative studies which should be undertaken in the field of Buddhism and Jainism. My attempt is to trace the references to Jainism n Buddhist literature and to evaluate the information contained therein. It has been my intention to find out the degree of accuracy and completeness with which the Buddhist literature has recorded various dogmas . and teachings of Jainism.
The method addopted by me has been to examine the data in the Tipitaka, the Pali Non-Canonical literature and Sanskril philosophical works in that order. I have utlized the original texts in Pali and Sanskrit as far as possible. Where similarities or original Jaina versions of any doctrinal point were observed, the Jaina works in Ardhamagadhi and Sauraseni Prakrits and Sanskrit were used.
One observation has to be made at this stage on the scope of the research I had undertaken. Contrary to the general belief, the data on Jainism available in Buddhist Literature are very meagre. Though contemporaneous, the Buddhist records have only made scanty references to both Jainism and its Tirthankara or Tirthankaras. These references are distributed all ever the voluminous literature and the search for them has been a very arduous task whose magnitude and difficulty may not be very clear to an ordinary reader of these chapters.
My indebtedness to previous authors and translations of the Pali, Prakrit, and Sanskrit literature has been duly acknowledged in the references and the bibliography.