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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It was when we planned to bring out two special issues on Jainism commemorating the 2,500 years of Nirvana of Lord Mahavira that some friends suggested the idea of combining the two special issues together and giving them a permanent shape. Generally people do not preserve the copies of a magazine even if it contains valuable material. And since we wanted to publish in these two volumes valuable articles of eminent writers, we thought it worthwhile to bring out simultaneously these two volumes in book form also. We took care that the book should represent almost all aspects of Jainism deserving the name it bears. In order to make the book more informative an article on 'Bibliographical Aids for the Study of Jainism" was added at the end. Also, the articles on Jaina Art are supported by twenty-three art illustrations to make them complete.
As the work was done in a hurry, unfortunately some printing mistakes have crept in.
It has been our effort to see that while elucidating the different facets of Jaina philosophy and culture, the articles are simple yet sholastic, providing good reading material to general readers as well as to scholars on the subject. If any criticism or issue is raised in these articles, it is with a view to promoting the interest in Jainism by inviting a fresh thinking on some aspects of Jaina philosophy and practice.
However, all these tasks would have been almost impossi. ble had it not been for the kind co-operation we received from many friends and well-wishers to whom we are extremely grateful. We are thankful to the writers, all of whom are authorities in their fields, for assisting us in our cultural mission by voluntarily contributing their valuable articles. We are thankful to the advertisers (in the special numbers of our journal) and to the donors, specially to the trustees of Motilal Bengani Charitable Trust, Calcutta, Sheth Aminchand Panalal Adishwar Temple, Bombay, and Shri Misrilal Jain, Calcutta, for extending some financial coverage to this plan which helped us meet a part of the cost of these publications. Also, we are obliged to Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay, and the Directorate of Information and Public Relations, Government of Maharashtra, for lending us some blocks used in this book.
Last but not least, we are extremely grateful to Sadashiv Gorakshkar, Director of Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay, for assisting us in carefully selecting and captioning the art plates which required a great deal of thinking and study and to Professor V. Rajaraman and Mr. V. G. Kumar for going through a part of proofs and offering many valuable suggestions. We shall fail in our duty if we do not express our deep gratitute to Shri Shriyans Prasad Jain who so radily agreed to write the learned foreword to this volume. 15th August, 1976.
Vishwanath Pandey
