Jaina Tradition in Indian Thought

Contents: Prelude. I. The heritage: 1. Age of the first Tirthamkara. 2. Era of last Tirthamkara. 3. Lord Mahavira. 4. The practice of the earlier Tirthamkaras. 5. Jain antiquity. 6. Jain cosmography. 7. Remnants of the Jaina Srutanga Ditthivada. 8. Classic and Puranik Jain literature. 9. Sivabhuti and Sivarya. II. The history: 10. The chief political divisions of India during the eighth century. 11. Identification of Vardhamanapura and the ruler of Avanti. 12. Location of Vardhamanpura. 13. Identification of Jerahat. 14. The Dharasiva caves and the Silahara dynasty. 15. Chavda dynasty of Gujrat. 16. Jainism at the court of the Chalukyas of Gujrat. 17. Historical research in Berar. 18. Prefabricated houses in ancient India. III. Language and literature: 19. Paisaci traits in the language of the Kharosthi inscriptions. 20. Traces of an old metrical Prakrit grammar. 21. Prakrit of Karpuramanjari. 22. Apabhramsa language and literature. 23. Some more finds of Apabhramsa literature. 24. Notice of Jain literature in central provinces. 25. Svayambhu and his two poem in Apabhramsa. 26. An ode to Candragupta Vikramaditya. 27. Parallelism of tales between Apabhramsa and Western literature. 28. The Jain literature. IV. Philosophy: 29. Jainism: its philosophy and ethics. 30. The Great Apostle of Peace and non-violence. 31. Buddha and Mahavira. 32. The Jain and the Sahajayana schools of Yoga philosophy. 33. Bihar: essential of Jain philosophy. 34. Conception of soul in Jaina philosophy. 35. Suffering and the way out of it. 36. The problem of the mindless (Asanjni) living beings. 37. Non-violence in Jainism. V. Contribution of Jainism to Indian thought: 38. The Jainism. 39. Prakrits and Jainism. 40. What Jainism stands for? 41. Mahavir preached Ahimsa 6 century B.C. 42. Schism and rapprochement. 43. Kalidasa on the Himalayan boundary. 44. Education and coherent scheme of life. 45. The bird that feels the light. 46. Contribution of Jainism to Indian culture.

"The richness of Indian culture is chiefly the result of its three ancient systems of religion and philosophy namely the Vedic, the Jain and the Buddhist. Anyone who ignores the study of any of these gets a very incomplete picture of the history and social life of this country and he fails to grasp the essential features of Aryan thought through all its phases of development.

"The Jains claim a great antiquity for their religion. Jainism, as a system of thought, is dualistic. The attitude of Jainism towards other systems of thought is regulated by its logic of Anekant. The Jains have always taken their due share in the development of art and culture in the country. They have played a very important part in the linguistic and literary development as well.

"Jainism has been neglected as a field of study until recent times. Jain tradition in Indian thought covers the vaculty to some extent. This collection of essays on Jaina studies is classified in five chapters namely the heritage, the history, language and literature, philosophy and contribution of Jainism to Indian culture. Dr. Hiralal Jain has clarified the tradition and principles of Jainism and has underlined the very concept of Indian spirituality as universally valid heritage of the Indian people at large. He has pushed the known boundaries of knowledge forward hitherto unknown regions and did that in various ways." (jacket)