Books Received

Summary

The ‘Books Received’ section provides a bibliographic survey of recent publications on Jainism and related subjects. The list includes scholarly works, devotional manuals, biographies and translations in English, Hindi, Gujarati and Prākrit. Among the titles noted are ‘Jain Nirmala Ratnakar’ by Milap Chandra Katarīya and Ratanlal Katarīya, a collection of essays on Jaina philosophy; ‘Somaprabha‑carita’ edited by Nagin J. Shah, which presents a Prakrit epic with English translation; and the English version of ‘Atma‑kathā,’ the autobiography of the eleventh‑century scholar Puṇyacandra. Several books are translations of sermons delivered by Jain saints, while others are modern commentaries on classics like the Āgamas or the Tattvārtha Sūtra. Some publications focus on the lives and teachings of prominent monks. For example, the Hindi work ‘Vitarāga Jīvan’ recounts the life of Adinath Mahavira and discusses early Jain history, and Sumeru Chandra Muni’s ‘Bhagwan Mahāvīr’ (in Hindi) offers a short introduction to Mahāvīra’s doctrine. Others, such as ‘Religion and Culture of the Jains,’ edited by D.D. Sircar, collect papers presented at academic conferences on Jainism. The section also lists periodicals like ‘Jain Ālok’ and ‘Jain Journal,’ indicating the growing interest in Jain studies. Works on Jain ritual, iconography and art, as well as dictionaries of Jaina philosophical terms, show that researchers are documenting both the doctrinal and cultural dimensions of the tradition. By providing publication details—pages, price and publisher—the section serves as a resource for libraries and individual readers. It reflects the vibrancy of Jain scholarship in the early 1970s and the availability of materials for readers with varied linguistic backgrounds.