Illuminator of Jaina Tenets

The Illuminator of Jaina Tenets is the English version of Jainā-Siddhānta-dīpikā composed in Sanskrit by Ācārya Śrī Tulsi in sūtra-style with an auto-commentary.

The renowned Indologist Prof. Satkari Mookerjee very highly appreciated the work and spontaneously decided to render it into English. The translation was finished by 1958, but the publication was delayed as the thoroughly revised edition of the original text was published in the mean time. The task of making necessary additions and alterations was entrusted to the editors who also added new notes, keeping in view new studies on the subject in recent years.

The earliest work on this subject was composed by Vācaka Umāsvāti in Sanskrit with an auto-bhāsya.

The present work gives the fundamentals of Jainism in a nutshell. The treatment of topics is lucid and critical throughout and summarizes the development of the concepts through the ages.

The editors have attempted at throwing a new light on the ancient Jaina doctrines like paryāpti, types of birth, vertebrates, invertebrates, etc., and some aspects of the Jaina doctrine of karman. A modern student of Jainism will be able to get a correct idea of the basic principles of Jainism in modern perspectives.

The Introduction gives a new treatment to the topics like substance and attribute, space and time, materialistic concept of karman in relation to the modern science of genetics and the two deadly sins of the civilized man, viz. ārambha (the aggressive urge) and parigraha (the possessive instinct) as explained in the ancient Jaina scriptures.