nikhilam anujachittaM jnanasutrair naverya@h
sajabhiva kusumanaM kalandhhrair vidhatte/
sa laghum api mamaitaM prAchyavijnanatantuM
upah@rtamatibhaktya modataM mai g@rhitva//
May He, who links the minds of all people,
through the apertures of time, with new threads
of knowledge like a garland of flowers, be pleased
to accept this my thread of Eastern thought, offered,
though it be small, with the greatest devotion.
Volume 1
First Edition: Cambridge, 1922
Dedication
The work and ambition of a life-time is herein humbly dedicated with supreme reverence to the great sages of India, who, for the first time in history, formulated the true principles of freedom and devoted themselves to the holy quest of truth and the final assessment and discovery of the ultimate spiritual essence of man through their concrete lives, critical thought, dominant will and self-denial.
Note on the pronunciation of transliterated Sanskrit and Pali words
The vowels are pronounced almost in the same way as in Italian, except that the sound of a approaches that of o in bond or u in but, and a that of a as in army. The consonants are as in English, except c, ch in church; @t, @d, @n are cerebrals, to which English t, d, n almost correspond; t, d, n are pure dentals; kh, gh, ch, jh, @th, @dh, th, dh, ph, bh are the simple sounds plus an aspiration; n is the French gn; @r is usually pronounced as ri, and s', @s as sh.