International Journal Of Jaina Studies Vol 01 To 03 2005 To 2007

SR No.: 022773
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Peter Flugel
Publisher: Hindi Granth Karyalay
Publication Year: 2008
Total Pages: 202
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 17

institutes or sodha samsthanas (Arrah 1925), private colleges or vidyā pihas (Varanasi 1937), and private institutes for the publication of the scriptures such as the Prakrit Text Society and the L. D. Institute (Ahmedabad 1952) were founded. Initially, most of these institutions were not open to the public but served exclusively the interests of the members of the Jain community or particular sections thereof. But the intention to spread the knowledge of the Jain doctrines throughout the secular educational system in India and beyond was in evidence early on. The Jaina Gazette reported in 1926 that M. J. Mehta, M. J. Jhaveri and A. H. Shah had approached the Hindu University in Benares (BHU) with the offer to finance a chair in Jain logic and philosophy in the University, under the condition that the General Secretaries of the Jain Swetambar Conference should be consulted in prescribing the course”. 26 The offer was declined. Only when the Indian Government itself made resources available with no strings attached were degrees in Prakrit and Jainology institutionalised at recognised Universities. Degree courses were established at the Universities of Vaishali 1955, Mysore 1971, Varanasi 1972 (P. V. Institute with BHU), Udaipur 1978, Madras 1982, and in 1991 at the Jain Vishva Bharati Institute in Ladnun, which remains the only 'deemed to be' Jain University to date. Degree courses in Jain Religion and Society are offered for the first time in Kolhapur from 2005 onwards.
Sadly, the impressive expansion of the institutional provisions for the study of Prakrit and Jainology masks a continuing decline of Jaina Studies in India after the renaissance of Jain scholarship in the 19th and early 20th centuries. For economic reasons, nowadays few Jains choose an academic career in Jainology or to become Pandits. As a consequence, University courses are empty, research is declining, and most of the remaining experts are Hindus (which is not bad at all but symptomatic). The only area of unabated excitement seems to be the craze for degrees as status symbols to be worn in tandem with Jainness itself. Similar tendencies can be observed elsewhere.
While India witnessed the progressive widening of access to Jain knowledge, culminating in the establishment of recognised University degree courses, Jaina Studies
25 Most research in Jain Studies in the 20th century was conducted at institutions such as the P. V. Institute, and the L. D. Institute of Indology which collaborates in some ways with the Gujarat University in Ahmedabad. Its creation and the publication of the Jaina Agama Series was inspired by Muni Punyavijaya (1895-1971).
26 Jaini 1926: 135.