Charlotte Krause her Life and Literature

Author(s): Shreeprakash Pandey
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

Page 35

[
xxviii ]
Charlotte Krause was supposed to have played a key role in this centre and therefore she was given a two year leave of absence, in order to deepen her knowledge in India itself.
On the October 15, 1925 she landed in Bombay and enjoyed first the hospitality of Mr. Jamsedji Saklatwalla and his family who introduced her to Pārasi scholars, since she also intended to continue her Avesta and Pahlevi studies which she began in Germany.
In March 1926, she decided to set out on a tour of Jaina centres, invited by Mr. M. K. Shah of Bombay, the then Secretary of the Jaina Gurukula of Shivpuri. En route she visited several important Jaina places and made the acquaintance of Jaina personalities, among them śāntamūrti Jainamuni Hamsavijaya, the poet of many a beautiful hymns in praise of the Jinas, and the scholar Mr. Keshavalal P. Modi of Ahmedabad. It was on Mt. Abu where she for the first time met the successor of the internationally renowned Jainācārya Mahātmā Vijayadharma Sūri, the equally agile protector and promoter of Jaina studies in the West, Itihāsa-tattva Mahodadhi Jainācārya Vijaya Indra Sūri. Charlotte Krause had eagerly awaited to meet him, having corresponded with him long before in the West. She also met some other learned disciples of Vijaya Dharma Sūri, Upādhyāya-Nyāyaviśärada-Nyāyatīrtha Mangalavijaya, śāntamūrti Muni Jayantavijaya and others, whose scholarship and calmness of mind impressed her deeply.
At her destination, the Vīratattva Prakāśaka Mandala in Shivapuri, which was then in the state of Gwalior, she found an extraordinary centre of Jaina studies. During the life of the two Ācāryas the Mandala attracted both Indian and foreign scholars like a magnet. In their endeavour to promote Jainism the Ācāryas were not only very open to scholars but also helpful and generous in providing books, manuscripts, discourses and information to the knowledge seekers. Among the long list of renowned scholars were those of the calibre of L. P. Tessitori, M. Winternitz, W. Schubring, L. Alsdorf to name only a few. [ The centre of Jaina studies in