Jaina Philosophy Historical Outline

Author(s): Narendra Nath Bhattacharya
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi

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Introduction
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tury. Popular books on Jainism by European and Indian scholars were also produced. In Hindi and Gujarati also appeared a number of books composed by the eminent Jains themselves.
Indian scholars did not keep themselves aloof from this new development of Jain research. Sir R.G. Bhandarkar had the opportunity of examining and cataloguing the Jain manuscripts of the Berlin collection. Indian prints of Jain canonical texts were sent to Europe during the eighties of the nineteenth century by Rāy Dhanapati Simha Bāhādur of Murshidabad and those were of immense help to the Jain researchers of Europe. As has already been stated, the Education Department of the Bombay Government had given Bühler and his colleagues permission to collect manuscripts both for Indian and foreign libraries. The maunscripts thus acquired for the Indian
1 Thus the study of Jain art was initiated by Fergusson in 1880 in his Cave Temples and it was followed by Bühler's 'Specimens of Jaina Sculptures from Mathura (1894, EI, III, pp. 311ff.), and Burgess's 'Digambara Jain Iconography (1903, IA, XXXII, pp. 459ff.). In 1901, V.A. Smith's monograph on the 'Jaina Stūpa and other Antiquities from Mathura' appeared in the NIRASI (XX). D.R. Bhandarkar published two important articles on Jain temples in the ARASI (1907-08, 1908-09) and one on Jain iconography in IA (1911). All known inscriptions of Jain character, or having reference to the Jains, were registered in Guerinot's REJ (Publications de l'Ecole Francaise d'Extreme Orient, X). Bühler also made significant contribution to the study of the Jain inscriptions from Mathura and in this connection we must refer to his important articles published in the Vienna Oriental Journal (WZKM, I-V. X). In 1908 was published Jacobi's 'Mataphysics and Ethics of the Jains' in TCHR, II, pp 60ff. which was followed by his 'Origin of the Svetambara and Digambara Sects' in ZDMG, XXXVIII. pp. 1ff.; XL, pp. 92ff. and 'Mahāvīra and his predecessors' in IA, IX, 158ff.
For non-Jain readers A.B. Latthe published An Introduction to Jainism as early as in 1905. A sketch of the whole domain of Jain history and literature was given by U.D. Barodia in his History and Literature of Jainism (1906) which was followed by Mrs. Stevenson's Notes on Modern Jainism (1910) and Heart of Jainism (1915), Jhaveri's First Principles of the Jain Philosophy (1910), Warren's Jainism in Western Garb (1912), Tank's Jain Historical Studies (1914), Bloomfield's Life and Stories of the Jain Saviour Pārsvanātha (1919), etc. Of works in Indian languages mention should be made of Phattelālaji's Jaina Vivāha Paddhati (1901), Shreepalchandraji's Jaina Saṁskära Vidhi (1907), Jaina Sampradaya Śikṣā (1910) and Sri Saurästra Visā Srimälină Jñārino Dhăro (1910), N.D. Yajnika's Jaina Vivāha Vidhi (1904) Rāmalālaji's Mahājana Vamsa-Muktavali (1910), J.K. Mukhtyar's Jinapūjādikara-mimämsä (1913), etc. A Jaina Svetāmbara Directory was published in Gujarati in 1909 and an all India Digambara Jaina Directory come out in 1914. The first volume of P.C. Nahar's, Jaina Lekha Sangraha, a collection of Jain epigraphs, came out in 1918, and two other volumes of the said work were published later.