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JAINA GAZETTE. (June & July tation of Vijai Dharama Suriji, encourages me to make some little venture and it appears that there is a matter of some importance to which I should like to call the attention of all those who peruse these pages.
All these who are at home in Buddhist studies are aware that in recent years, chiefly owing to the genius of an eminent French Scholar, a remarkable progress bas been made in the identification and interpretation of the figures and scenes carved upon the monuments of that religion throughout its whole sphere and especially in the domain of what is called Gandhara ArtBy his wonderful gift of reading the mind of the sculptors in their work, M. Foucher has enabled us to recognise the artistic equivalents of innumerable personages and stories which were previously known only from the literature. We see how the artists conceived of Buddhas and Buddhisathvas, gods and all kinds of supernatural beings, kings, queens and all classes of society, how they represented incidents of Buddhas final existence on earth and bis Jatakas or earlier incarnations. And thus we obtain a vivid picture of the lives and I beliefs of the meinbers of the community which otherwise we should never have obtained.
Now what I want to urge is the desirability of following Professor Foucher's example in the sphere of Jainism. It is hardly too much to say that the need is here even greater. Of the canonical Jain scriptures we have indeed some knowledge and the abundant later literature is, in outline at least, more or less correctly estimated. To mention only European scholars, how much lias been done for us in this respect by Weber Jacobi, and Buhler. But concerning the life and practical piety of the community in the early centuries we are still very much in the dark.
It is here that Archæology comes to our aid. And I must now mention again the name of the lamented Professor George Buhler, who both during his long service under the Bombay Government and also after his return to Europe Accomplished so much for all branches of Indian research. The excavation of the Jain mound at Mathura by. Dr. Fuhrer in
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
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