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INTRODUCTION
xvii
į nugh its veins and is invigorating it, this she seeks to
sc. She would fain register, and not unsympathetically, · pulse-beats and its hcart-throbs. For thc cxccution of this self-imposed task Mrs. Stevenson has special qualifications. Morc than eight years ago, on her arrival as a bride in Ahmadābād, she and her husband visited with me the largc Jaina temple erected in this city so recently as 1848, through the munificence of Seth Haţthisisha. We were on that occasion conducted past the enclosing cloisters (bhamatī) with their fifty-two small shrines to the inner court, and then admitted to the temple itself, passing through first the open porch (mandapa) and next the hall of assembly (sabhā mandapa), tu wc stood on the very .threshold of the adytum (gabhāro), and there we witnessed the ceremonial waving of lights (āratī). The pathos of this service and its sadness made a deep impression, and from that evening Mrs. Stevenson has been a keen and constant student of Jainism. ller knowledge of the Gujarāti language has enabled her to acquire much information at first hand both from the Jaina paņdits who have for years assisted her in her research-work, and from the vernacular text-books which have of late been issuing from the local printing-presses. Her kindly sympathies have won her many friends in the Jaina community, and have even procured her a welcome entrée into the seclusion of a Jaina nunnery. Time and again she has been present by invitation at Jaina functions seldom witnessed by any foreigner. Her long residence in Kāțhiāwād has afforded her opportunities for repeated visits to those marvellous clusters of stately temples that crown the holy hills of Girnār and Ābů and Satruñjaya. In her admirable Notes on Modern Fainism, sevcrcly simplc notes published five years ago, Mrs. Stevenson gave us a first instalment of the rich fruits of her patient research, but since then she has been able to glean a more abundant harvest. The contribution that she now offers to the public will prove simply
