A History of Indian Literature v2.c20.s1.7

v2.c20.s1.7

With rare exceptions, the sacred books of the Jainas are written in a dry-as-dust, matter of fact, didactic tone, and as far as we know them hitherto, are seldom instinct with that general human interest which so many Buddhist texts possess. Hence, important as they are for the specialist, they cannot claim the interest of the general reader to anything approaching so great an extent. If, for these reasons, the following treatment of Jinist literature¹ occupies a comparatively small space, we shall be giving only a faint idea of the exceedingly wide range of literary activity of the Jaina monks, to which the catalogues of Jaina manuscripts² and the very numerous editions of texts that have appeared during the last decades in various collections, bear testimony.¹