Lecture on Jainism

Author(s): G C Pandey
Publisher: University of Delhi

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FOREWORD
Shri Raj Krishen Jain Charitable Trust has accomplished an excellent task by instituting annual lectures on Jainism in the memory of its founder late Shri Raj Krishen Jain The credit for this goes to Shri Prem Chandra Jain, the son of the founder, who on the occasion of the 25th Nirvana Centenary of Lord Mahavira donated a sum of Rs 50,000/- along with many valulable works on Jainism to our University As per the desire of the donor, the annual bank interest of Rs 5,000/- accruing out of the donation will be proffered to the eminent scholars who deliver original and analytical lectures on some aspects of Jainism
Professor Govind Chandra Pande, who has carved out an important place for himself in the academic and intellectua) world by his historical, philosophical and literary contributions has been our natural choice for the inaugural year Professor Pande has covered a vast field of Jaina Studies by incorporating in his lectures Jaina ethics, metaphysics, epistemology and ontology Those who were present at the lecture were highly apprciative of the pains that Professor Pande had taken in the preparation of the lectures and even more so for the excellent matter in which he delivered the same We are grateful to Professor Pande for having made available to us the manuscript of these lectures almost immediately We are sure that in the published form these lectures would be read with profit hy a much wider range of scholars interested in Jain Studies
The task of organising the lectures had been put on the Department of Buddhist Studies for obvious reasons Jainism and Buddhism, the two great religions of India, originated and developed almost simultaneously They shared a long common history But at the same time, their historical developments differ considerably. While Jainism remained rooted in the native soil