Jain Journal 1967 10

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 3

BOOK REVIEW
JAINA COMMUNITY-A Social Survey : V. A. Sangave : Popular Book Depot, Bombay : 1959 : Pp. xviii-+-480 : Price Rs. 25.00.
In this learned work, the author deals with the Jainas of all denominations constituting a community and characterised by a selfobliviousness which may be traced only among very few people on earth. They are not only oblivious of their philosophy and religion but also of their history somuch so that the Jainas in Bengal, Mysore or Tamilnad are mutually as alien to each other as the Patagonians and the Eskimos. But despite this self-obliviousness and despite the fact that the Jainas constitute a small community, though well-dispersed all over India, even to her remotest regions, they have, in the words of the author, "contributed a great deal to the development of art and architecture, logic and philosophy, languages and literature, education and learning, charitable and public institutions and political, material and spiritual welfare of the people of different regions of India. Apart from these contributions, ... after the decline of Buddhism in India, the Jainas remained as the only representatives of śramana culture in India." Of such an interesting people, it is important that there are more and more studies brought out dealing with its social and institutional aspects. In this field indeed Dr. Sangave is no pioneer but the fact remains that the author has dealt with his subject in a more comprehensive manner than many of his fore-runners. If, in so doing, he has touched on certain points or has elaborated certain others in a manner and to an extent not entirely relevant to his subject, these have been so organically woven with the text that they would hardly have the look of interpolations, still less of extraneous materials. To illustrate, though primarily intended to be a social survey, the book has a very rich and comprehensive chapter on Jaina ethics which also includes Jaina superstitions, Jaina holy places and Jaina institutions.
The work is based on factual information which may be called first-hand. The author had prepared a very comprehensive questionnaire including 50 questions and covering all aspects of the Jaina so which he had widely circulated among the leading Jainas all over India and on the basis of the outcome he prepared a working model which