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Virchand Raghavaji Gandhi : Assessment of a Jaina ... : 99
The concept of India as a unique, hoary civilization and vibrant culture, with multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi-religious, and multilingual traits, finds articulation in the discourses and writings of VR Gandhi. To him India was not just a geographical entity but the land of gods and holy men. He regarded the quintessential Indian values as timeless and eternal. He saw the different schools of Indian philosophy as flowers of various hues, all emitting fragrance. He regretted that while India was 'the mother of religions and 'the cradle of civilization' it was dubbed as the land of heathens, 'both materially and spiritually' in Christendom due to ignorance.99 On the testimony of Greek writers like Strabo, Pliny, Arrian and Megasthenese he argued that India had become a familiar topic with the western people long before the birth of Jesus. He quoted from the writings of scholars like Max Mueller (1823-1900), Sir Thomas Munro (1761-1827), H.H. Wilson( 1786-1860) and others to show that India had a glorious past. Hinduism to him was not a religion in the western sense of the term but a way to achieve all-round perfection. He spoke of Hinduism's antiquity and its superiority to European knowledge in many spheres of activity. He rejected the view that Hindus have no history 'worth considering' prior to the Muslim invasion of India. The fact is that historical events were transmitted 'with particularity and exactness from generation to generation, from century to century.240 Like Swami Vivekananda, he provided the raison d'etre of caste, image worship, rites of marriage, and of religious symbols like AUM, swastika, forehead-marks, chakras (wheels or lotuses) in the subtle body, etc. He described Sanskrit - deva-vāņi - "language of the gods', 'the oldest language in the sisterhood of languages', 41 as essential for an understanding of Indian history, religion and culture, a fact vouchsafed by western philologists. Yet he was not a revivalist in the narrow sense of the term. He disagreed with Abbe Dubois's description of Hinduism as a pagan religion and argued that modern science has come to accept the value of some ancient rites and
| SR No. | 525089 |
| Book Title | Sramana 2014 07 10 |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Ashokkumar Singh, Rahulkumar Singh, Omprakash Singh |
| Publisher | Parshvanath Vidhyashram Varanasi |
| Publication Year | 2014 |
| Total Pages | 122 |
| Language | Hindi |
| Classification | Magazine, India_Sramana, & India |
| File Size | 9 MB |