Jain Journal 1972 01

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

Page 10

BOOK REVIEW
JAINISM by Natalia R. Guseva: translated from the Russian by Y. S. Redka: Sindhu Publications Private Ltd., Bombay, 1971: Pages xii+108 Price Rs. 13.00.
Indology as a broad field is by now about 200 years old, and many scholars, both western and Indian, have enriched it by their investigations and masterly writings so much so that it has now a distinguished place in the world of ancient learning. Within the fold of Indology, Jainology is, however, a comparatively recent, though an increasingly recognised, field which is already attracting and will continue to attract, many young scholars. Earliest to be attracted to this field from the western world were the British, more particularly the German, scholars. Now the Americans are taking a deep interest in it. It is gratifying that the Institute of Ethnography of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences, which has sponsored this little work under review, is forging a link with India's rich past.
Madam Guseva, the authoress, a winner of the Jawaharlal Nehru prize for popularising India to the people of the Soviet Union, has already a reputation for having produced a Russian Stage version of the great Indian epic, the Rāmāyaṇa. She has now turned to Jainism of which the ethnic and historical roots have apparently interested her. As a researcher, she doesn't have a closed mind, nor does she strive to propound, establish or support any thesis, dogma or faith; rather, she intends to, to use her own words, "generalise as objectively as possible the evidence of records, monuments, folklore, etc." with "the sole aim of unravelling the historical process as it was". The study is "essentially intended to acquaint the Soviet readers with the complex ethnocultural background of India", and it is in that spirit alone that one should wend through the pages of Madam Guseva's work, not so much as to get a comprehensive view of Jainism, which is not possible in such a narrow compass, but to be just introduced to it.
In an unsigned introduction, which may be from N. N. MikhlukhoMaklaya, of the Institute of Ethnography, there are a couple of points worthy of note, and one important point deserving of refutation. The reviewer shares the lamentation by the writer of the introduction that Jainism as a religion has "received comparatively little attention from a majority of historians and specialists on Indian culture, even though