Gommatsara Jiva-Kanda (Sacred Books of the Jainas)

PUBLISHER'S NOTE.

It is with a heavy heart and a shaky pen that I have labored to write these few lines.

“The Sacred Books of the Jainas” reminds me of the passing away of my very dear friend Kumar Devendra Prasada Jaina, who founded the above “Series” and published, in 1917, its first volume: “Dravya Samgraha,” a monumental work on Jaina Philosophy by Acharya Shri Nemichandra Siddhant Chakravarti, translated and edited by Mr. Sarat Chandra Ghoshal, M. A., B. L., Saraswati, Kavya-Tirtha, Vidya Bhushan, Bharati, with a learned Introduction covering 48 pages and exhaustive commentaries. The original text consists of 58 verses only, but their translation and commentaries cover 123 pages of Royal Size. Dear departed Devendra was a born publisher. The publication of the highest authoritative works of Jaina Acharyas for the glory of Jainism and for the benefit of humanity was the one aim and ambition of his life, for which he sacrificed his worldly prosperity, his college career, and even his life.

With his boundless enthusiasm, single-minded devotion, and selfless exertions, he succeeded in securing the cooperation of scholars of exceptionally high attainments, like Professor A. Chakravarti of the Presidency College, Madras, and Mr. J. L. Jaini, M. A. (Oxon.), Barrister-at-law, Judge, High Court, Indore.

Mr. J. L. Jaini, M. A., M. R. A. S., then Chief Justice of Indore, translated and edited the Tattwarthadhigama Sutra, which he has very appropriately called the Jaina Bible, and followed it up by undertaking the translation, with commentaries, of Gommatsara, the encyclopedia of Jaina Philosophy. This work was begun by him in the Chaturmása the four months of the rainy season, traditionally spent by monks in one place, of 1927, when Jaina Dharma Bhushana Brahmachari Sital Prasadaji stayed with him and helped him. The printing was commenced in the rainy weather of 1926, when Brahmachariji decided to stay at Ajitashram and supervise the work.