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Preface
THE HE book was born out of the course I have been offering on Jainism in the Centre of Advanced Study in Philosophy, University of Madras, since 1969. The course leading to the Master's Degree in Indian Philosophy of the University of Madras has had an international composition and hence it required not merely 'the statement of facts' about the Jaina tradition but it involved, more basically, situating Jainism as an integral aspect of Indian tradition. In the course of my lectures my endeavour has been to show that a true understanding of Jainism would be possible only if it is considered in the light of Indian tradition as a whole, and also to maintain that the richness of Indian culture could be appreciated better by delving deep into the various aspects of the Jaina philosophy. This meant primarily that I had to 'dissect out' the Jaina tradition and analyse its various facets in detail, in addition to clearing the misunderstanding about its origin and relationship with sister-systems.
At the instance of my students I reduced my whole analysis to writing and I thought it would be better, both from the point of view of the lay reader- both Indian and foreign and from the point of view of serious scholars of Jaina thought, to take a comprehensive sweep of the whole tradition and at the same time observe brevity in treating the essentials of the subject. The sections dealing with a general introduction to Jainism, epistemology, psychology, metaphysics and ethics have hence been designed with this aim in view. It is realised that the comprehensive vision and
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