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PUBLISHER'S NOTE
The BHARATIYA JNANAPITHA has been founded by the well-known industrialist and business magnate Seth Shanti Prasad Jain and his talented wife, Shrimati Rama Jain, with a view to recover from old Shastra Bhandaras, to edit and to publish all available ancient texts in Prakrit, Sanskrit, Apabhransha, Hindi, Kanarese, Tamil, etc on subjects like philosophy, mythology, literature and history etc. The Institution was founded on the 18th February, 1944. It has published several important books in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and Hindi languages. It has been the privilege of the Jnanapitha to receive from the very inception the co-operation and valuable guidance of Rao Bahadur Prof. A. Chakravarti, M.A., I.E S. (Retd.). He is the Editor of our English and Tamil series. A branch of the Jnanapitha has been established at Madras under his guidance, primarly as a result of his inspiration.
We are happy to commence our English series with the publication of the SAMAYASARA whose author Acharya Kunda Kunda holds a unique position amongst the authors of Jaina Philosophy and Metaphysics. The SAMAYASARA is indeed a work of outstanding merit and has attained unparalleled authority so far as understanding of The Nature of the Self is concerned. Though there have been quite a few editions of the SAMAYASARA, the present one is noteworthy because of the lucid exposition that the accompanying commentary of Acharya Amrita Chandra presents. Rao Bahadur Prof. A. Chakravarti has enhanced the value of the work by his explanatory notes in a form easily comprehensible by the modern mind. In a masterly introduction Prof. Chakravarti has brought out the essential features of Indian and Western thought on this all-important topic of the SELF. We have every hope that the present edition of the SAMAYASARA will receive attention and approbation of all lovers of Indian philosophy and of Jaina thought,
