Mahavira his Times and his Philosophy of Life

Author(s): Harilal Jain, A N Upadhye
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

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Old Hindi, Old Gujarati, etc. Jaina authors have considered language only as means to an end; they never invested any one language with religious sanctity. Thanks to their broad outlook, they could make salient contributions to Sanskrit and Prakrit; and how they have enriched Tamil and Kannada, at least the learned readers here need no further elaboration from me.
Bühler wrote many years back about Jaina literature in this manner: 'In grammar, in astronomy as well as in branches of belles-lettres the achievements of Jainas have been so great that even their opponents have taken notice of them and that some of their works are of importance for European science even today. In the South where they have worked among the Dravidian peoples, they have also promoted the development of these languages. The Kanarese, Tamil and Telugu literary languages rest on the foundations erected by the Jaina monks. Though this activity has led them far away from their own particular aims, yet it has secured for them an important place in the history of Indian literature and civilization'. This prophetic observation of that great German scholar is not only fully borne out, but later finds and researches have also shown that if Bühler had lived today, he would have been more eloquent on the Jaina contributions to Indian literature.
With such meticulous care and perseverance the Jainas have preserved Ms. collections in places like Jaisalmer, Jaipur, Pattan and Moodbidri that these are a part of our national wealth. They built these collections with such an academic and catholic outlook, that there was hardly any place for religious bias. It must be said to the credit of the builders of the great collections at Jaisalmer and Pattan that it is here that we could trace certain original Buddhist works which otherwise were known to us only from Tibetan translations.
19. Mahāvira: His Philosophy of Life
A dispassionate and critical study of Jaina literature enables one to get a fair idea of the Jaina outlook or view of life. By
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