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The Government of Bihar established the Research Institute of Prakrit, Jainology and Ahimsa at Vaishali (Muzaffarpur) in 1955 with the object, inter alia, to promote advanced studies and research in Prakrit and Jainology, and to publish works of permanent value to scholars. This Institute is one of the five others planned by this Government as a token of their homage to the tradition of learning and scholarship for which ancient Bihar was noted. Apart from the Vaishali Research Institute, four others have been established and have been doing useful work during the last twelve or thirteen years, namely, the Mithila Institute of Post-Graduate Studies and Research in Sanskrit Learning at Darbhanga, the K.P. Jayaswal Research Institute at Patna, the Bihar Rashtra Bhasha Parishad for Research and Advanced Studies in Hindi at Patna, and the Nalanda Institute of Research and Post-Graduate Studies in Buddhist learning and Pali (the Nava Nalanda Mahavihara) at Nalanda (Patna).
As part of this programme of rehabilitating and reorientating ancient learning and scholarship, this is the Research Volume I, which is the thesis of Dr. J. C. Sikdar, Research Scholar of the Institute, approved for the Ph.D. degree of Bihar University. The Government of Bihar hope to continue to sponsor such projects and trust that this humble service to the world of scholarship and learning would bear fruit in the fulness of time.
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