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manuscripts, you come to appreciate the rich traditions of our literature and come back with strengthened belief in Jain faith. Although special arrangements are necessary to handle the manuscripts, the library is making them available online, as scanned images on the library web page:
www.library.upenn.edu/etext/mss/index.html
A visit to the library would be incomplete without visiting the collection of black and white photographs of temples of India. This 95,000 photograph collection is the only one outside of India (The original set is in Benaras) and is most comprehensive catalog of temples - Hindu, Buddhist and Jain. It is a result of project of American Institute of Indian Studies that started in 1965 and is just now nearing completion. The collection is sorted by states and alphabetically by cities in that state so you can easily find your cherished temple.
This vast collection is expertly maintained on three different floors of the library by the Bibliographer Dr. David Nelson. He has been involved with South Asian studies for over twenty-five years. He studied Sanskrit at the University of Minnesota in 1969 and has knowledge of many of the Indian languages. He has been to India many times acquiring books and manuscripts. He is very impressed by strides made by publishing industries of India in last twenty-five years. Advent of new technologies has been so aggressively taken up in India that he conducts much of his business over the net. He is attempting to offer many of the valuable resources of the library to a global community rather than limiting to only University community. He has made so many of the scanned Sanskrit manuscripts on the net to enable Indian community to understand and study more deeply their cultural heritage. It is his personal commitment and interest in Indian culture that shines through the tremendous maze of books dating back nearly two hundred years.
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ssisting Dr. Nelson in his endeavor is Dr. Jerome Bauer, who has completed a Ph.D. in Jain Studies at Penn. Dr. Bauer studied with Shri Nagin Shah at L. D. Institute of Indology in Ahemdabad for 2 years and spent 4 Rainy months (Chaturmas) with Muni Jambuvijayji at Charoop (in North Gujrat near Patan) reading Karmagrantha. In addition to working at the library, he currently has three projects. 1) An introductory course on Jainism and Jain Traditions for upper division undergraduate and graduate students; 2) a grammar, lexicon, and reader of Ardhamagdhi Prakrit, the language of the Jain scripture, which does not assume knowledge of Sanskrit; and most important of all, 3) a "sourcebook of Jainism," an anthology of diverse Jain writings in English translation. He strongly believes that Jainism should
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be included in American religious studies:
www.library.upenn.edu/vanpelt/collections/sasia/ As rich as this Library collection is, what makes this institution vibrant today is Dr. Brown's Human legacy: the South Asia Regional Studies Department at Penn, with so many scholars teaching courses on Indian languages, religion, art music and history. Consider the courses being offered at Penn. Dr. Ludo Rocher teaches a course named "Legacy of India" every spring and is very popular and usually has 150 students many of whom are American born children of Indian immigrants. Many students end up writing paper on Jainism in this course. Dr. Richard Cohen, Associate Director of South Asia Center teaches a course on "Introduction to Jainism" and "Introduction to Jain literature". Dr. Michael Meister teaches art history courses with attention to Jain art and architecture. Dr. Jerome Bauer teaches courses on the history of Indian food, including Jain Vegetarianism. Advanced courses in Jain Prakrit were originally taught by W. Norman Brown, then by his student Dr. Ernest Bender, and now by Dr. Ludo Rocher. Dr. Wilhelm Halbfass offers advanced courses in Jain Philosophy. Dr. George Cardona teaches Sanskrit Grammar and Dr. Guy Welbon teaches the history of Indian religions. This rich offering of courses on Jainism is due to tradition of Guru Parampara that started from Dr. Brown to Dr Bender and today Drs. Cohen and Bauer. Dr. Peter Gaeffke offers courses on Indian literature and teaches Bengali.
Many Indian teachers offer courses in modern Indian languages. Ms. Panna Naik and Babubhai Suthar are teaching Gujrati, Dr. Surendra Gambhir teaches Hindi and Urdu. Dr. Gambhir takes number of students to Pune every summer for a course that includes studies of Ayurveda. Courses are offered in Bengali, Tamil, Malayalam, Punjabi etc. There are courses on Indian music and movies too!
The library is considering exhibiting some of the manuscripts and books at the convention. This fabulously wealthy temple of knowledge is sitting quietly in west Philadelphia waiting to be discovered by anyone who has interest in Jainism. Layman or a scholar who visits for the first time will be soaked with sprinklings from ocean of Jainism at this JAINSHALA So as you go to Philadelphia for the 10th Biennial JAINA Convention, plan to visit the Van Pelt Library at U. Penn. Be prepared to be overwhelmed.
The writer wishes to acknowledge help of Drs. David Nelson and Jerome Bauer in preparing this article. For more information on visiting the library, please contact Dilip V. Shah at 215/561
0581.
For Private & Personal Use Only
JAIN DIGEST SPRING 1999/21
www.jainelibrary.org
