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Foreword
Acharya Vijayendra Suri Ji-the senior most Jain Acharya of today -- has been very silent worker and preacher of Jain Literature and religion throughout his life. His Guru Late His Holiness Shastravisharad Jainacharya Vijaya Dharma Suri started this work from Yashovijaya Jain Pathshala, Varanasi. At that time also it was Muni Indra Vijaya who looked after all this work on his behalf.
The following letters will indicate immense work that Acharya Shri has been able to accomplish in his life of renunciation spread over a period of more than 65 years. Luckily these letters are available with Acharya Shri and on our request he has graciously given his kind permission to make use of them.
Unfortunately Acharya Shri has not kept copies of the replies he sent to various scholars. If they would bave been available the whole work would have been an encyclopedic work on Jain History, Literature and related topics.
Here we may mention that the whole correspondence is too large for a single volume. Most of the letters of Dr. Hertel consisted of more than 25 pages of typed-script. They could have been sufficient for a volume. Similar is the case with the letters of Dr. F. W. Thomas.
We are sorry that letters from some western scholars like Dr. L. D. Barnett and Dr. W. Norman Brown and Indian scholars like Dr. Shamashastri, Dr. Satishchandra Vidyabhushan, Dr. Gaurisbankar Ojha, Dr. Hiranand Shastri, Dr. Harprasad Shastri, Dr. A. S. Altekar, Dr. Phanibhooshan Adhikari, Dr. P. C. Bagchi, Dr. Vinayatosh Bhattacharya, Dr. S. N.
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
