Studies in South Indian Jainism

Author(s): M S Ramaswami Ayyangar, B Seshagiri Rao
Publisher: M S Ramaswami Ayyangar

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SOUTH INDIAN JAINISM.
Information,
CHAPTER I. EARLY HISTORY OF THE JAIN SECT. No topic of ancient South Indian History is Sources of more interesting than the origin and development of the Jains who, in times past, profoundly influenced the political, religious and literary institutions of South India. It has sometimes been thought that a connected account of the Jains could never be written. But the patient and laborious researches of great oriental scholars such as Burnell, Bühler, Burgess, Hornle, Jacobi, Mackenzie and Wilson, to mention only a few of them, have placed in the hands of the student of the Ancient History of India enough materials to construct a true ando authentic actount of the early Jain sect. Of special value and importance to us are the elaborate articles and authentic notices of the Jains from the pen of eminent scholars like Colebrooke, Weber and Bühler. The student of Jain history is especially indebted to Lewis Rice whose splendid services in the field of epigraphy can never be over-estimated. The Epigraphia Carnatica 'and many other valuable historical documents brought to light by the Epigraphical Department of the Mysore State are veritable mines of historical information. But, in accepting the conclusions arrived at by some of these