Outlines of Jainism

Author(s): J L Jaini, F W Thomas
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Page 17

PREFACE
CONTACT between the East and the West is of a comparatively recent date : but it has already borne fruit. The East has shed its merely contemplative mood. while the West has outlived its merely materialistic tendencies. There is indeed a general willingness to exchange ideas, whereby the whole of humanity is benefiting.
About a century and a half ago there arose in Europe a great desire to explore the buried and current treasures of the East. Among the religions of Indian origin Brahmanism, 02 Hinduism, was the first to attract attention, but Buddhism soon followed. Jainism, which canie last, made its advent in unfavourable circumstances. The Jainas of India were ignorant of the west and of western methods of study. Worse than this. they were religiously averse to letting non-Jainas read, or even see or touch, their sacred books. In consequence Jainism was misunderstood and misrepresented. Its tradition and teachings suffered from the scholar's partiality for his older and accustomed studies in Brahmanism and Buddhism. But, by the labours