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LAST WORD. We have now come to the last, word. The object of the book has been achieved and it is open to all to see that once Jainism was a real force and power in India. We see that in the past Jainism shone in glory and splendour. Proud, successful kings, generals and ministers of state believed and followed the Jaina doctrine and were not too proud to sit in humility at the feet of Jaina gurus. Nor did their belief in the Jina creed lessen their bravery, their valour, their wise statesmanship, their brave and clever generalship.
And we see exploded once and for all the legend that the downfall and final slavery of India are due to the Jaina creed of ahimsa. While Jaina kings ruled in the land no foreign invader was allowed to obtain a foothold in the sacred land of Bharatvarsha. When Alexander and his legions were the terror of his times, it was the Jaina King, Chandragupta, who crushed and defeated them and hurled them out of India. When through centuries of persecution of the Jainas, the. Hindus rose to power, it was only then that invaders were able to set foot in the land and to remain. It was the stranglehold of the Hindu caste-system that was India's ruination. That fetish of blood-superiority that sets càste against caste,
