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PREFACE.
THE stories contained in the Kathakoça are, in their present form, at any rate, intended to illustrate the tenets and practice of Jainism. In other words, though they are genuine fragments of Indian folk-lore, they have been edited by some Jain theologian for the purpose of the edification of the votaries of that religion. It seems, accordingly, desirable to give a short account of Jainism, in order to render these tales intelligible.
The religion of the Jains, called in Sanskrit Jainas, or Árhatas, the followers of the Jina or Arhat, i.e., 'the conqueror of the world,' or 'the holy one,' arose in the same part of India, and about the same time, as Buddhism,* but it has not, like that religion, become extinct in India proper.t On the contrary, it still numbers among its adherents many wealthy and influential men. It ought to appeal to the sympathy of Europeans, as it claims to be, like Buddhism, a universal religion. As Hofrath Bühler points out, it opens its arms even to the despised foreigner or
* I may as well at once acknowledge my obligation to the following scholars: Hofrath Bühler, and Professors Cowell, Gough, Hoernle, Jacobi, Leumann, and Weber. I shall have, in the course of the following pages, frequently to refer to their works. Hofrath Bühler's Vortrag Ueber die Indische Secte der Jaina' contains an excellent summary of Jainism, to which I am largely indebted. I regret that it has not been translated into English. But Jainism does not seem to be popular in this country. At least, I have never heard of Esoteric Jainism.'
There are, of course, Buddhists in the districts of Chittagong and Darjiling.
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