Prameyratna Kosh

Author(s): Chandraprabhsuri
Publisher: Jain Dharm Prasarak Sabha

Page 7

PREFACE.
prevails on the first. Indeed after having refuted the theory of the existence of God and demonstrated the necessity of an omniscient being who must be the Jina, the author propounds and demonstrates the सप्तभङ्गी and the अनेकान्तवाद, which are the chief characteristics of Jaina philosophy. In the following chapters he discusses the most relevant points by which Jainism is distingueshed from the other philosophical systems of India and he finds, therefore, an opportunity for refuting Sâmkhya, Mimânsaka, Bauddha, Naiyâyika and Vaiceshika. On this account the book is a remarkable contribution to the history of Indian philosophy and helps us to establish the exact standpoint taken by Jainism in regard to many general questions discussed by the various Indian schools. It is interesting also on account of the style which is of that analytic and dialectic, I should say scholastic, character which properly belongs to an advanced stage of philosophical evolution. The exposition is always clear and the method rigorously logical.
I have been able to read the proofs only once and the Jain Dharma Prasāraka Sabhâ have taken upon themselves to oversee and control the corrections. But some mistakes have remained, especially in what I shall call the exterior part, with which the editor has not meddled. I mean to say in the composition of the title page and head line. In these places the readers are requested to correct gata (which I did not write ) into plat. It is true that the form with q is permitted (see Apte's Dictionary and Wackernagel's Altindische Grammatik, p. 225 ); but the form with pris more correct and, in any way, it is in this form that the word appears in the title of the work as it is in the MSS.
PAVIA, June 1912.
L. SUALI.