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INTRODUCTION
I have great pleasure in introducing the correspondence that has been passing between Reverend Acharya Shri Vijaye. ndra Suriji and an astonishingly large number of thinkers and investigators in the field of Jainology throughout the world.
The Reverend Acharya has served as a mighty link, spiritual as well as scholarly, between Jain tradition and modern histori. cal methodology. Most liberally he has helped each and every researcher who approached him. And there has been done who has not approached himn.
The correspondence will afford a delightful and profitable reading to everyone who is interested in Jainism.
Many of the participants are now no longer with us. To mention only a few-Maurice Bloom field and Hopkins of America; Charpentier of Sweden; Hertel, Jacobi and Leumann of Germany; Sylvain Levy of France; Finot of Hanoi; Sten Konow of Oslo; Tessitory of Italy and Thomas of London. Among the great humanists one may mention Dr. Rabindra Nath Tagore and Count Leo Tolstoy.
The Reverend Acharya has been providing material and intellectual fare on a vast scale for the last forty years. The world of modern Jain scholarship owes a deep gratitude to him. We wish the Reverend Acharya many more long years of continuation of this noble service. New Delhi
Prof. DR. RAGHU VIRA March 3, 1959
Director, International Academy of Indian Culture.
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
