Gommatsara Jiva-Kanda (Sacred Books of the Jainas)

PREFACE.

My "Outlines of Jainism" was published by the Cambridge University Press for the Jaina Literature Society, London, in 1916, as a precursor to a series intended to consist principally—but not exclusively—of translations from authoritative texts. The aim was to assemble the entire Jaina Canon on one bookshelf. Following this idea, which I brought back from Oxford and London in 1910 and 1913, we began translating the sacred texts. My friend, the late Kumar Devendra Prasada, was in constant consultation with me. With his enthusiastic and inimitable love for this work, he published several Jaina texts and launched the "Sacred Books of the Jaina Series" with the splendid first volume, Dravya Sangraha, edited by Mr. S. C. Ghosal in 1916. My Tattvartha Sutra followed as the second volume in 1920. The learned Professor A. Chakravarti gave us the third volume, Panchasti Kaya, at the end of the same year. Purushartha Siddhyupaya, with translation and commentaries, was prepared by my learned brother, Pandit Ajit Prasada of Ajitashram, Lucknow; the Indian Press of Allahabad had printed about half the book when the Kumar suddenly died.

On December 14, 1920, Kumar Devendra Prasada wrote to me, saying, "Volume V be your Gommatasara." I take this as the testamentary wish of a beloved soul and therefore publish this translation as the fifth volume of the "Sacred Books of the Jainas." Volume IV, Purushartha Siddhyupaya, is also currently in press.