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they formed after a deep study of the litera ture on Jainology or from contact with the Jaina scholars and learned saints.
Up to the close of the last century, even impartial scholars held very pcor opinions about Jainism, which were unfortunately based on hearsay. The superficial outward resemblance of Jainism and Buddhism also did not actuate them to study the Jain literature. Further the literature on Jainism being also mainly in Prakrit and Sanskrit was not easily accessible to those scholars who did not know these old oriental languages. In his foreword to The Jaina philosophy of Non-absolutism, the eminent scholar Dr. Satkori Mukerji of the Calcutta university, writes :
yles of
"It is a pity that while other systems of Indian philosophy have so many exponents, both here and abroad, the rich, deep and vast treasures of the Jaina thought relating to all the fields of culture, particularly.relating to motaphysics, epistemology and logic should be so little known to the world at large. This ignoble fact is not at all conducive to the credil of the rich adherents of the Jaina faith in this land".
gether
ainism
miehet
zemin schich
This deficiency is, however, now
being
