Jain Spirit 2005 06 No22

Author(s): Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains

Page 15

in a 10th-century ruler of Delhi and Ujjain, has reissued her book. "I have spent a lifetime in love with ancient India," said Caillat, who is now in India to promote her book. "I'm especially fascinated by the Jains who epitomise peace and non-violence- in my mind the greatest virtues man can possess." Caillat, who has held a chair at the University of Paris on Indian and South Asian civilisation, is considered the guiding spirit of the Centre for Buddhist and Jain Studies. "It was a very different India then," she remembers. "There were so few people. People
The website embodies a comprehensive range of features such as: (a) the Member Directory - a database of about 20,000 Jain families living within and outside the Indian sub-continent; (b) the Saints' Directory includes more than a thousand profiles of Jain saints; (c) the Temple Directory depicts more than 1500 Jain temples from eight countries; (d) the Business Directory promotes inter-community business opportunities worldwide; (e) the Matrimonial Directory provides the unique opportunity of enhancing matrimonial links between eligible Jain men and women, with over 1500 profiles between the age groups of 17 to 50 registered so far; (f) the Connection with Religious Websites - the portal promotes links with about 525 websites of other Jain sects as well as with various other world religions such as Hinduism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, Islam, Christianity and Baha'ism. An E-Shop provides the facility for the purchase of artefacts, statuettes, books
website profiles
www.jainsamaj.org and cassettes about Jainism, from any
part of the world.
For more than seven years, www.jainworld.com has been the most comprehensive and popular Jain resource on the net. This has been the result of tireless efforts and dedication by more than 500 people from all walks of life. www.jainworld.com is an entry point for many non-Jains into the manylayered world of Jainism, including Jain doctrine, philosophy and way of life.
used to walk about all the time. And there were no plastics." Caillat came to India in her youth to do research and travelled to large areas of the country during the 1960s. Today, all that has changed, but what remains is her innate love for Indian culture. "Even today when I come to India, an India that is so different from the one I loved, I still feel at home. There is something in the air here that instantly puts me at ease and I feel that I was always meant to be here."
The site has a global perspective, translating texts and articles into languages ranging from French,
This is the love that Ravi Kumar, who
www.jainworld.com German and Spanish through to
The website has added a personal touch to the idea of community interaction, by responding to each of the 20,000 members of the portal with a Birthday Greetings message on the appropriate day through individual email IDs!
The Ahimsa Foundation is also issuing a regular monthly news bulletin, Ahimsa Times, in which all important events and news relating to the Jain society are covered. The bulletin is electronically mailed to over 62,000 Jain families all over the world, free of cost. No postman in rain or thunderstorm is required to circulate this bulletin to living rooms of Jain households. It is interesting to note that so far the running costs of this portal serving so wide a community are being financed mainly by one person, Mr. Anil K. Jain. He has not only made best use of the resources available to him but the
Russian, Korean and Romanian. Work in the Serbian language is being prepared by a Serbian scholar, showing that interest in Jainism is spreading to new areas as our world becomes more interdependent. The site includes material about well-known Jains, past and present, along with Jain customs and spiritual practice. It is presented in an accessible style.
www.jainworld.com is now a truly global site visited from 122 countries in the last 18 months with more than 42,000 hits per day! It provides a useful For Personal & Private Use Only
lives in Paris, instantly recognised when he asked to reprint the book. "I realised that her scholarship is indeed wonderful, that she really cares for the subject," said Kumar. "And her book has detailed information about the ancient ways of Jain cosmology." Filled with ancient sketches and paintings that Kumar inherited, the book talks about stargazing - the Jain way. "The Jains didn't have a very different way of astronomy from the other old Indian forms," Caillat said. "Simply, their methods were very accurate. They rarely went wrong on anything."⚫
employees in his accountancy firm are well acquainted with the activities of the Jain samaj. He admits with a smile that he has been lucky, so far, in obtaining help from all quarters in running the show. He has a deep sense of gratitude towards Dr. Sulekh Jain and Mr. V. C. Mehta, who have always been guiding the activities of the Ahimsa Foundation as its trustees. The circulation of Ahimsa Times is steadily increasing, thus raising the profile of Jainism and connecting Jain communities across the world.
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