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202 Dr. Charlotte Krause: Her Life & Literature
Promoting Western Jainology
To what degree Vijaya Dharma Sūri, who could justly be called the father of indigenous Jaina research, has promoted European Jaina studies likewise, this is so well known that I need hardly dwell on it here. There is indeed not a single Jaina scholar in Europe or America but profited in some way or other by the great Acarya's tactful and liberal help. Vijaya Dharma Sūri ( it is wellknown) had cultivated an extensive correspondence with the Western learned circles interested in Jainism, and every scholar concerned with Jaina studies could always firmly reckon on being supplied - on request - with references, advice, manuscripts, books and whatever information or other materials he was in need of, through Vijaya Dharma Sūri's generous hand. Scarcely any work has been written on a subject pertaining to Jainology during the last about 20-30 years whose author does not own his indebtedness to the venerable Acārya. From this fact it can be inferred what Vijaya Dharma Suri's liberal policy meant for the young science 'Jainology'. What was Jainology only some decades ago? And what did the West know about Jainism at that time? The number of people who knew something about Mahāvīra and the other Tirthankaras, or who knew the meaning of such important everyday terms as ‘Pratikaramaṇa', ‘Kāyotsarga”, ‘Śrāvaka”, ‘Śrāvikā', ‘Samyaktva', etc., was limited to a few scholars. Whereas, at that very time, nearly every educated European had some idea about Brahmā, Viṣņu, Śiva, about Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā, about the Vedas and Upanisads, about Mahabharata and Rāmāyaṇa, about the beauties of Kalidasa's poetry and about Bhartṛhari's melancholy, about Nirvāṇa and 'Tattvamasi', and there was Gautama Buddha's life painted, in glowing colours, by the masterhand of the Western poet Arnold, a glorious piece of poetry which quickly made Buddhism popular in Europe. Thus, Buddhism had, indeed, become known, and begun to be methodologically explored in Europe, long before anybody had ever heard of Mahāvīra's teachings. The consequence was that Jainism came to be believed to be but a recent off-shoot of
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