Jain Journal 1968 01

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

Page 31

JANUARY, 1968
117
Union a Certificate of Honour in recognition of his great learning in Sanskrit. He is at present a teacher and research guide in Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Bharatiya Sanskriti Vidyamandir at Ahmedabad
Since writing the above I have received the news that Pandit Dalsukh Malvania, the foremost and most erudite disciple of the Pandit Trio has been invited by the University of Toronto (Canada) to accept the assignment of a Professor of Indian Philosophy in their Department of East Asian Studies. Pandit Malvania, who is now 57 years old, is the most outstanding product of the Pandit Trio. Like the Gurus, he was also born and brought up in utter poverty and is every inch a self-made man. He also hails from Gujarat. He had his first learning in Jaina philosophy and Jaina texts under Pandit Bechardasji at Ahmedabad and inherited from him a scientific outlook and a rationalistic attitude on all questions of religion and philosophy. Later, he had the opportunity to work under the guidance of Mahamahopadhyaya Pandit Vidhusekhar Shastri and Muni Jinavijayji at Santiniketan when Rabindranath Tagore lived there. Here he had the opportunity to undertake advanced study of the Jaina religious texts and also of the Prakrit language. Then, in 1935 he joined Pandit Sukhlalji at the Benaras Hindu University as his reader. Pandit Sukhlalji was deeply impressed by the innate desire and capacity of Pandit Malvania to learn and study. Sukhlalji greatly encouraged and helped Dalsukh Bhai to achieve mastery over the study of Jaina religion and philosophy. While living in Benaras with Pandit Sukhlalji he also became greatly interested and nurtured in comparative study of Indian religions. His writings brought him fame and recognition from far and wide. In 1944, when Pandit Sukhlalji retired from Benaras Hindu University, Pandit Malvania being his foremost disciple and associate was appointed to occupy the Jaina Chair in the Oriental College of the said University in place of the former. This was Dr. S. Radhakrishnan's choice too. After working for nearly 15 years as Professor of Jaina Philosophy in Benaras Hindu University, Pandit Malvania was invited in 1959 to become the Director of Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Bharatiya Sanskriti Vidya Mandir and since then he is directing and guiding research in various branches of Oriental learning in general and Jaina philosophy and religion in particular at this Mandir.
Pandit Malvania's valuable contribution to the study and advancement of Oriental learning has been widely recognised by scholars all over the world. Since 1952 he is the Secretary of the Prakrit Text Society