________________
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
xix
ever, to exhibit in a few articles the Jain belief on those points which to a European (though not always to an Indian) seem of first importance.
1. The Jains then believe that the world, consisting of intellectual as well as material principles, has existed from all eternity, undergoing an infinite number of revolutions, produced simply by the inherent physical and intellectual powers of nature, without the intervention of any eternal Deity, no such Being, distinct from the world, having any existence, though certain of the world's elements, when properly developed, obtain deification.
2. That in every great cycle of years twentyfour Tirthankars are manifested in the Bharat Khanda of Jambu Dvípa, our India. These are not only Sádhus, rising from manhood to deity, by the force of meditation, but are also Divine Legislators, each laying down a particular institute for the purification of mankind : whence they derive their name*. Though at present there are no Tirthankars in India, in other terrestrial districts there are no less than twenty.
* giti ata u nzist: The Jain Tirtha is a moral one.
