________________
106
THE JAINA GAZETTE
by Jainism in the field of architecture and sculpture is not unknown to any lover of art and beauty.
In writing about Jaina literature Dr. Hartel of Germany writes:-"Now what would Sanskrit poetry be without this large Sanskrit literature of the Jainas? The more I learn to know it, the more my admiration rises."
About this very point Professor Winternitz says in his "Jainas in the history of Indian literature":"It would take a fairly big volume to give a history of all that the Jainas have contributed to the treasures of Indian literature."
Jainas have contributed their full share to the religious, ethical, poetical and scientific literature of ancient India."
Again while speaking of Jaina literature and architecture Dr. Hartel says:-` -"Jaina literature gives nourishment in the same time to the scholar, to those who like refine literary compositions, and those who like fine fairy and other tales, related in a simple style which is adapted to this kind of literature. Neither the Buddhas nor the Hindu authors know how to tell a tale At the same time what would have become of Indian sculpture and architecture, if the Jainas had kept, as you say, to conservative ideas i.e if they had not caused statues of the Tirthankaras to be made and temples to be built."
60
Writing to the same effect Mr. T. L. Vaswani says, "Marvellous in its minute workmanship and symbolism is Jaina architecture. Jainas have developed a logic which is not surpassed by any other in its severe reasoning and analysis; and the Jaina philosophy as I understood it holds within it ideas which can help much in building a new Civilization."
Our modern science also is in many points based on the original principles of the Jaina science. What is the invention of gramophone? It clearly points to the fact that a word or a voice is a kind of matter, and this is what Jainism has been saying for hundreds of years. The recent discovery of Dr. Bose that plants or vegetables have life in them is the fundamental idea of Jaina religion and Jaina science.
Speaking on Jaina science Dr. L. P. Tessitory of Italy once observed to the following effect ;—
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
