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PREFACE
(SECOND EDITION) A STUDENT of Jaina literature, in his pursuit of Oriental Studies, has to face peculiar difficulties in evaluating the cultural contribution of Jainism and Jaina literature to the Indian heritage. Jaina literature is both religious and secular; it is an extensive tract preserved in many languages, Aryan as well as Dravidian; so a thorough study of this is of prime importance for the history of Indian literature, language, thought and life. Many texts are printed in India, but they deserve no more value than that of a printed Manuscript. Some Orientalists, both European and Indian, have rendered signal service to the cause of Jainism and Jaina literature by their researches and critical editions; they have prophesied that here is a fruitful field that cannot be ignored by an Indologist; but what has been done till now is very little when compared with the tremendous leaps with which Vedic and Buddhistic, Sanskrit and Pali studies have advanced. Each field may present its own problems; but the comparative and critico-historical method of study, which has borne excellent results elsewhere, is sure to be fruitful when applied to Jaina literature as well. It is a stupendous task the beginnings of which have been happily made by various Orientalists, especially those three German scholars: WEBER, LEUMANN and JACOBI.
An exhaustive history of Jaina literature is an urgent desideratum. The section on Jaina Literature, in WINTERNITZ'S A History of Indian Literature, Vol II in English, which has been recently published, shows how much more remains to be done. If the task of a future historian is to be facilitated, it is necessary that exhaustive monographs on different works should be written shedding light on their religious, philosophical, linguistic, literary and historical aspects, and discussing all about their author and period. Ample side-light is available from literary and epigraphic sources. The facts should be judiciously selected and critically marshalled without losing the historical and comparative perspective. With the modest aim of supplying a corner stone, carefully shaped and cautiously chiselled, to the prospective history of Jaina literature, no mean pillar in the edifice of Indian Literature, I have herewith presented an edition of Pravacanasara with an introductory essay on Kundakunda, one of the greatest authors that the Jaina church has produced, and his works.
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