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OURSELVES
(The contents of this book are the exact reprint of the April 1969 issus-Vol III, No: 4 of Jain Journal. It would be Appropriate to acquaint the reader with the editor's views. Originally Shri Ganesh Lalwani had declined to include this in the reproduction. He has left for his heavenly abode and as such, we include this as a tribute to him.)
This special number of the Jain Journalon the occasion of the Mahavira Jayanti presents a panoramic view of Jainism over space and time as it is extant, despite all vandalism by man and ravages of nature, in the solid, semi-broken and delapidated stones-images, mounds, monasteries, columns caves of temples—that are scattered throughout the sacred dust of Bharatavarsa, and as has been recored in the works of a wide range of scholars who are being duly ackowledged in the end.
Apparently, this has been a hard and strenuous enterprise for which the editor claims no perfection. He is conscious that not all that could and should have been said about the heritage of Jainism has really been said within the few pages that follow. The limitation has been two-fold. One limitation has been imposed by the time-factor in which the whole thing had to be searched, collected, compiled and seen through the press but much more serious has been the second limitation in which not all that perhaps is the existing record on Jainism could be mobilised. Though the best may be yet to come, within the aforesaid limits, no effort has, however, been spared to present what could be the best for the reader's consumption.Doubtless, a complete account of the Jaina heritage'would fill up several volumes running into thousands of pages rather than being exhausted in about a hundred as in the present case. In fact, for the entire period of pre-history and history in India upto the advent of the TurkoAfghans at least, if not also for the later period, to the existing Hindu view of the state of things, there may be an equally, if not more, effective, fascinating and instructive Jaina version. Some Jaina scholars have attempted it piecemeal; but these enterprises, though commendable as pioneering efforts, are
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