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Studies in South Indian Jainism : Achievements and Prospects*
Dr. B. K. Khadabadi
With an humble beginning by the publicatson of a few reports about the Jaina community in the Asiatic Researches (Calcutta and London), Vol. IX, during the first quarter of the 19th century, and showing a notable progress with the rise of a host of scholars, both western and Indian, by the first quarter of the 20th century, Jaina Vidyā or Jainology nowadays has become a vast distinct field of study comprising many aspects of Jainism-historical, philosophical, doctrinal, literary, inscriptional, scientific etc; and the 2500th Anniversary of Lord Mahāvīra's Nirvāṇa recently can be said to have given a new philip to the study of all these branches of the field all over India and abroad too. Now the organizers of this unique Seminar, I should say, have decided upon the most relevant topic for deliberation viz., The Various Branches of Jaino. logy : Achievements and Prospects; and I have chosen to reflect on the Studies in South Indian Jainism : Achievements and Prospects.
It is quite possible that the first team of Jaina teachers entered South India viz., the Telugu country through Kalinga as early as 600 B.C.; and were pioneers in bringing the teachings of Lord Mahāvīra to the South. But it is the second team, certainly a large one, headed by Bhadrabāhu and accompanied by his royal disciple Candragupta, which entered Karnataka in 400 B.C. and established its first colony at Kalbappu, that radiated those teachings more effectively and extensively to the Southern and nearby regions in South India. The study of this early phase of South Indian Jainism, which can be said to have its beginning with B.L. Rice in 1909,2 progressed at the hands of scholars like Ramaswami Aiyagar and B. Sheshagiri Rao, R Narasimhachar, Vincent Smith etc. and the historicity of this south Indian tradition of the great Jain migration was almost established.
The next phase of studies in South Indian Jainism is found represented by the works of B.A. Saletore,
* Paper Presented at the Seminar of Scholars in Jainology, held under the joint auspices of the Bhāratiya
Jñānapitha (Delhi) and the Shāntisāgar Memorial Trust (Bombay), on 7th 8th, Sept., 1982, at Teen
Murti, Podaripur, National Park, Bombay. 1. For further details vide 'A Short History of Jaina Research' in The Doctrine of the Jains, by Walther
Schubring, Delhi, 1962, pp. 1-17. 2. Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions, London, 1909. 3. Studies in South Indian Jainism, Madras, 1922. 4. Epigraphia Carnatica, Vol. II, Bangalore, 1923. 5. The Oxford History of India, Oxford, 1923. 6. Medieval Jainism, Bombay, 1938.
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