Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 22.djvu/57

 with these Kalyânakas that the Lives of the Ginas are chiefly concerned, and this fact seems to prove that the custom of mentioning the Kalyânakas in the worship of the Tîrthakaras is a very old one; for otherwise it would be impossible to conceive what could have induced an author to treat so largely of so barren a subject as has been done in the Kalpa Sûtra. But whatever may be the age of the several parts of the Kalpa Sûtra, it is certain that this work has been held in high esteem by the Gainas for more than a thousand years. It therefore deserves a place in this collection of translations from the Sacred Books of the East. I could only have wished to make my translation more worthy of the place where it is to make its appearance; but if I have somewhat fallen short in my performance, I hope it will be accepted as an excuse that I had to translate into a language which is not my own, works of a literature which, notwithstanding all that has been done for it, still is all but virgin soil to us.

HERMANN JACOBI.

MÜNSTER, WESTPHALIA,
 * June, 1884.