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PUBLISHER'S NOTE
The B.J. Institute received a special donation of about Rs. 25,000 from the Arun Mills charity Trust through the late Shri Surottam Hathisingh in 1965. The amount is being utilised in inviting different scholars to deliver lectures on the various aspects of Indian Culture and publishing them. Eminent Scholars like Dr. R. C. Majumadar, Dr. D. C. Sircar, Shri D. R. Mankand, Dr. V Raghvan, Dr. B. J. Sandesara, Dr. P. L. Gupta, Shri C. Sivarammurti, Dr. K. Krishnamoorti, Dr. H. D. Sankalia and Prof. K.D. Bajpai have delivered lectures under this series. All these lectures have been published in book-form.
For the eleventh series of lectures, we invited Prof. Dr. Bansidhar Bhatt (Münster), a distinguished scholar of Sanskrit, Prakrit and Indology in genral and Jain philology in particular, to deliver lectures on 'The Idea of Ahimsa and Asceticism in Ancient Indian Tradition.'
He was generous enough in accepting our invitation and delivered · four lectures on the subject.
The Series contains discussions on (i) Ahimsa, Asceticism and Early Vedic rituals, Later phases, spread of Ahimsa and Ascetic Ideas (ii) Reform Religions and Ahimsa and Reform Religions and Vedic sactrifice. (iii) Holy cow in Indian tradition, the Vegetarianism and Ahimsa Miscellany. The lectures were delivered here under the chairmanship of Shri Chinubhai Chimanbhai on 22nd, 23rd and 24th February, 1993 respectively.
The fourth lecture (delivered on 25th Feb.) was in Gujarati Language, the topic being 'Luptapraya Adikalina Jain Tattvajñanana Ghadha Saņketo : Jain Agamonun Aitihasika Visleşaņa'. This lecture will be published separately in 'Samipya!- the research Journal of B. J. Institute.
Prof. Bhatt has attempted here to give a comprehensive review of the subject with a historical outlook in an admirably brietand critical way. He has thrown ample light on the theme of ahimsa and asceticism in their historical aspects, their origin and developments in ancient Indian Culture. The author has represented the recent views in the field of Indo - European (Vedic and Brahmanical), Buddhist and Jain
Philology. In his second lecture, Dr. Bhatt has discussed the reform Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org
