Outlines of Jainism

The book opens with a preliminary note by F. W. Thomas, which situates Jainism within the broader history of European scholarship on Indian religions. Thomas notes that Jainism had long been misunderstood or subordinated to studies of Brahmanism and Buddhism, but later scholarship helped establish its antiquity, literature, and doctrinal independence. The author’s preface explains that Outlines of Jainism was written to provide a brief, reliable, and authoritative account of Jainism for both Indian and European readers. The main introduction begins from two fundamental philosophical facts: man and the universe. Jaini frames religion as a set of answers to questions concerning the self, the universe, destiny, and duty. The work then arranges Jainism under four major headings: theology, metaphysics, ethics, and ritual. Theology presents the Jain conception of God as the perfected soul, free from matter and possessing perfect knowledge, faith, power, and bliss. Metaphysics explains the division of reality into soul and non-soul, including matter, time, space, motion, and rest. Ethics is presented as the most glorious part of Jainism, centered on the evolution of the soul and summarized in the principle of ahiṃsā. Ritual is explained as a devotional and ecstatic orientation toward the ideal of the perfect soul. The later sections and appendices introduce Jain logic, cosmology, astronomy, great persons, saintly qualities, and ancient Jain sacred literature.