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Poetical Biography of Sri Vijayadharma Sūri
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Buddhism for a long time. All this could happen, since there was nobody in the Jaina community who cared for an exploration or propagation of Jainism in Europe, but there were, quite on the contrary, numerous Sādhus who, in all earnest, did object to the sacred Jaina scriptures being exposed to European eyes and to their being edited, translated and studied with a critical view, for the study of these texts then was considered ( and the reader will perhaps be astonished to learn that it is still being considered in certain circles ) as a privilege of initiated Sādhus only. Regarded from this standpoint, Śrī Vijaya Dharma Sūri's indefatigable endeavours in contributing to the creation and advancement of Jainology are a most courageous and important step, which now, being approved of and imitated by a number of enlightened members of the Jaina community, appears so simple and so selfunderstood.
Devadravya Dispute
If, in all the above points, Vijaya Dharma Sūri had to face an orthodox majority, who did not share, and sometimes even opposed to, his views, this is still more obvious in another of his great attempts at reformation, viz., the famous 'Devadravya-Dispute', which, some years ago, set the whole community in motion. ‘Devadravya'means “property of the Gods' and consists, according to Vijaya Dharma Sūri's opinion ( which is laid down in his pamphlet 'Devadravya sambandhi māra vicāro'. Bombay 1920 ), only of such things which have been deposited before the respective idol with an explicit intention of being offered to the respective deity, such as gifts of money, rice, betel-nuts, almonds etc., which are daily offered in great quantities in all the various Jaina temples. Current custom and opinion, however, used to include in the Devadravya also the money derived from the so-called 'Ghi-ni boli', a kind of auction of the right of performing certain ceremonies, by which considerable sums of money are being collected. If Vijaya Dharma Sūri's opinion were to be generally adopted, in
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