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HINTS FOR SPECIAL STUDY
A student or a teacher, Jaina or otherwise, desirous of making an authoritative special study of Jaina philosophy asks as to what one book is there which can be studied in brief or in details and whose study should familiarise one with all the points related to the topics dealt with in Jaina philosophy. By way of answering this question one cannot refer to any other book except Tattvārtha. It is on account of this capacity of Tattvārtha that now a days here and there it occupies the foremost place in the curriculum of Jaina-philosophy. Even so, the general technique of study that is currently pursued in this connection does not seem to be much fruitful. So it will not be out of place to offer here a few hints about the requisite technique of study.
Generally speaking, the “vetāmbara students of Tattvārtha do not go through its Digambara commentaries and the Digambara students of it do not go through its Śvetāmbara commentaries. The cause of this over-all situation might be a narrow outlook, a sectarian prejudice, an absence of relevant information, or whatever else. But if this impression of mine is correct than as a result of this over-all situation how much narrow remains the knowledge of a student, how much unsatisfied remains his curiosity, how much blunted remains his capacity for a comparative study and a weighing of issues, and hence how little authoritativeness attaches to what is learnt of Tattvārthasūtra—to see all this one need not go much far away from the students coming out of any Jaina institute whatsoever functioning at present. If the path of knowledge, the field of inquisitiveness, the investigation of truth are vitiated by a closed
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