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PROLEGOMENA TO PRAKRITICA et JAINICA
(Poona, 1944) have also been consulted for the history of Jain authors and works. In addition to these, Albrecht Weber's Sacred Literature of the Jains (published by Jain Bhawan, Calcutta, 1999) has also been taken into consideration. Moreover, the introductions to the different editions of the works of H. Glasenapp, W. Schubring, A.N. Upadhye, Hiralal Jain and many others have also been consulted.
It should be noted that in the earlier parts the dates of Jain authors and works are in the doldrums; no definite periods can be assigned to them. But as I will have to start from somewhere, I have accepted the dates, traditional or otherwise, of the works. For example, the dates of Umāsvāti/Umāsvāmī, Kundakunda, Vattakara, Kārttikeyasvāmī, Siddhasena Divākara, Samantabhadra and the like are in a floating stage and they vary from the first century A.D. to the 7th century A.D. The dates of all these authors need not be taken for granted. All the dates are liable to be changed in accordance with researches in subsequent years.
It goes without saying that these charts can be useful only if they are used in the right way. The main purpose of this chronology is to get an idea of which works of which authors are to be put in which century. It is a century. wise development of Jain works and authors.
The aim of this article is simple. It gives only the factual information, such as, the dates of an important author or work as the case may be or the time of a religious or philosophical movement. The main purpose of this chart is to put the events or the frames of authors or works into a chronological order, so that one can see which works belong to which century. I believe that it will help scholars to write the history of Jainism in a chronological order.
There is no need to say that this chronological chart is not complete in any way. One can utilise this chart only to write the history of Jainism. The history of Jainism is rather complicated and not systematic. It develops in India
