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7
The style of almost all the Jain Canonical works is, as Winternit puts it, 'dry as dust, dull, and uninteresting'. The first part of the Rajapraśniya at least certainly conforms to this description. There is very little in it of interest to a general reader; & even for a specialist, there is not, much to engage his special attention or study. The second part, on the other hand, is full of interest. It contains a philosophical discussion on the existence or otherwise of the soul apart from the body, between king Paesi and the monk Kesikumara Sramaņa. The monk at last proves, with many illuminating and interesting examples and allegories, that the soul has a separate and independent existence apart from the body.
