Acharya Hasti Mala
Padma Vibhūṣaṇa Dr. Daulat Singh Kothari
Chancellor Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
In the first volume of this series; history of Jain religion, from the beginning of present time period and prehistoric times, starting with the founder of human civilization the first Tīrthaṃkara Lord Vṛṣabha Deva to the liberation of 24th Tīrthaṃkara Lord Mahāvīra had been described. In the second volume, Jain history after the liberation of Lord Mahāvīra to his first disciple Indrabhūti Gautama, his first pontiff Ācārya Sudharmā till 27th pontiff Devardhigaṇi Kṣāmaśramaṇa i.e. a span of 1000 years had been presented. In the present third volume, history of Jainism from V.N.1000 till 1475 i.e. 161 years prior to the era of worthy of his name Śrī Hemacandra Sūri is given. In the fourth volume Jain history from V.N. 1475 till V.N. till V.N. 1978-2001 i.e. Lokāśāha and the rest i.e. from Lokāśāha till the 20th century AD (V.N. 2515) shall be presented in the fifth volume.
For compiling this important series, effective use had been made of the writings of earlier ācāryas, scholars of history etc, like Hemacandra's 'Triṣaṣṭi Śalākāpuruṣa caritra' and 'Prabhāvaka Caritra' by Ācārya Prabhā Candra.
In the present series of books on history, a sincere effort had been made to sequentially enlist not only the rise, fall, rejuvenation of Jain religion from time to time but the paradigm changes in the doctrine and its practice itself. In fact Jainism is the religion of nonviolent activities of mind, body and speech based on the great foundation of nonviolence itself.
In the present age of most painful, horrific and destructive power of atomic energy, heart troubling all-pervading destruction; the most significant development is the existence of some great saint or luminary in this country who had been the torch bearer and preacher of the eternal and all beneficial tradition of universal brotherhood and nonviolence practiced and propagated by Lord Mahāvīra so that the very existence of humanity can be safe guarded.
In this era of daily new scientific researches and their bold usage, it has become greatly significant and important to mould the thinking and direction of the humanity towards nonviolence, self-restraint and self-discipline and solve the problems associated with such new researches and their usage. Due to the concomitance of nonviolence and self-discipline, it has become essential and most important that they are both propagated and practiced together.
In the history of humanity, the religion had always been a guiding force to all those great entities and human beings who have tried to give a constructive and benevolent turn for betterment of social- economical political-cultural aspects of human beings. In fact in all the religions, the religion of non-violence itself is the most important and potent discovery.
From the core of our hearts, we express our sincere and deep respect and indebtedness to the great, venerable Ācāryaśrī for unstinted effort in researching, compiling and throwing light of the right path in this series of Jain Dharma kā Maulika Itihāsa thereby contributing to the profound wealth of literature of Jain history and religion.
