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INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF NON-VIOLENCE
(ENCYCLOPEDIA ASIANA)*
DR KALIDAS NAG
Part I
While preparing the memorandum on cultural problems for the Asian Relations Conference, I painfully realized how difficult it was to formulate plans for our cultural reconstruction in the absence of dependable and up-to-date books of reference. How enormous is the field of our survey and alas. how few are our sign-posts and observatories for the cultural horizon of Asia. Inspite of the terrific ravages of time and history, the devoted Indian chroniclers and compilers have transmitted to us sectional Cyclopedias devoted to the vedic and post-vedic literatures grouped under (i) Samhita-Brähmana. (ii) Sutra-Sāstra (iii) Itihasa-Purana and such classes.
The Heterodox schools led by the Jaina-Buddhistic scholars have also left us priceless documents on our social, economic and ethical life. Although the Buddhist canonical literature, of the Northern, (Mahāyāna) and the Southern (Hinayana) Schools had been partially made available to us, yet the classics of Jainism and other important sects have not yet been systematically explored. Yet some of the great Jaina-Buddhist scholars were Encyclopedists in their own way: Tattua Sangraha, Chaturvarga-Chintamani. Samarāngana Sutradhara etc. are samples of our medieval Cyclopedias. Then, our group of Lexicographers developed special dictionaries (Kosha) like, Amarakosha, BhubanaKosha etc. which carefully compiled and classified the technical terms (paribhasa), which must be clearly understood before Indian ihoughts could be adequately grasped. That is probably why we have found in course of the last hall-a-century of exploration in Khotan, Kucha, Turfan, Tuen-Huang and other monastic libraries of Central Asia, so many valuable manuscripts in diverse scripts and different languages, ranging from Iranian, Turko-Mongolian and Sino-Tibetan languages. China and India being the natural leaders in this, defusion of culture among Asian nations, produced the largest number of word-books.
It is a reprint from the speech delivered by Dr Nagin 1947 on the occasi of Mahavira Jayanti.
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