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Activities of Jain Religion
in the Last Century
Jainism: The Cosmic Vision remembered by all the people in 1983. Just hundred years before at that very time, the Parliament of Religions of the world was held in Chicago in the United States of America. Almost every Jain organisation the World over, organised various kinds of functions in honour of the late Virchand Raghavji Gandhi. A library was started at Mahuwa in memory of Virchand Raghavji. Just outside the premises of the library at Mahuwa and also outside the Jain Derasar at Chicago, a statue of the late Virchand Raghavji was installed. The statue was made by Prabhudas Sompura in Ahmedabad for which he had spent five months. I travelled from place to place in Saurastra in those days just to procure a turban which in then was used by a Jain Shravak and after ongoing lot of efforts I ultimately succeeded in procuring one from an old Jain layman. The Institute of Jainology devoted one special issue of its periodical 'Ahimsa' in memory of Virchand Raghavji Gandhi. Three different organisations sponsored the publication of three of the books written by Virchand Raghavji Gandhi. A special stall was put up at the venue of the Parliament of World Religions at Chicago. Elocution competitions and essay competitions were held in the sacred memory of the late Virchand Raghavji Gandhi. Nevertheless, a lot more things are still to be done in that regards.
A s we examine the activities of Jain congregations (sanghas) during the last hundred years, a fact, that surfaces is that the activities in Gujarat affected the activities in other states of India and the activities in other states of India and the activities of Jain religion in other states echoed in Gujarat. It is, therefore, not only proper, but also necessary to examine the religious activities of Gujarat in the perspective of the whole nation.
In A.D. 1884 Hermann Jacobi translated the two Prakrit Jain Canonical (Agam) books Acharangasutra and Kalpasutra into English under the caption "Jain Sutras'. In the preface of this book Hermann Jacobi has established that the Jain religion is not an off-shoot of Buddhism. Lassen, Wilson, Vebar and other scholars believed that Jainism had emanated from Buddhism. Jacobi respectively refuted the four arguments of professor Lassen and proved that Jainism is absolutely
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