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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
FOREWORD
One of the impressive features of Jainism is its saying power. It is generally assumed to have had its beginnings with the Tirthankara Pārsvanatha in the 8th century B. C. and, though today it has only a relatively small body of adherents, it maintains a healthy, lively, and productive existence in both of its two great divisions.
In the many contacts which I have had with both Jain munis and Jain laymen during the past forty-three years I have observed the zeal with which the Jain community, both monks and laymen, preserves, studies, publishes and preaches its literature and honors the Jain teachings in their living. The Jains are not only a gentle people, but also a devoted and industrious people in conserving their faith. Furthermore, in our own time as in the past, the Jain munis constantly produce new works of religious edification, which may be written in English, but much more often in Gujrati, Hindi, Kanarese and other modern spoken languages of India and in Sanskrit as well, which learned Jain monks, like learned Hindu scholars, use for intellectual communication. Most surprising in this diligence in producing
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