Jignasa Journal Of History Of Ideas And Culture Part 01

Author(s): Vibha Upadhyaya and Others
Publisher: University of Rajasthan

Page 44

6 / Jijnäsä
Mere suffering, of whatever kind. is not the same as the 'noble truth of suffering. Everyone understands the former, but one who understands the latter moves beyond the level of the multitude sunk in folly. Not only the Marxian interpretation of Buddhist principles treating them as vague expressions of social attitudes and opinions is misplaced, their assumptions about the society in the age of Buddha also appear to be fallacious on the factual side. To say that the Vedic age was simply pastoral and that the sacrificial religion was essentially tied up with such a pastoral age, and further that sacrifices involved the killing of animals on a mass scale, large enough to affect the economy, does not seem to square with the evidence available.
He had presented a paper at the XXXI International Congress of Orientalists (Delhi, 1964) on the Origins of Mahāyāna. Its revised version in the form of a historical-cum-metapsychological study, inspired by Maha Mahopadhyaya Gopi Nath Kaviraja himself was published in Kaviraja Abhinandana Grandha (1967). Professor Pande's detailed work on Mahayana Buddhism, viz., Studies in Mahāyāna (1994) not only incorporates his earlier probings on the subject but has essentially outgrown from its analysis as presented in the Bauddha Dharma ke Vikas ka Itihasa. In his view Mahāyāna should be looked upon as a conception of universal religion developed within the Buddhist tradition. It combined a transcendental philosophy with an ethos of universal compassion as well as a popular religion which was akin to the worship of diverse gods and incarnations through appropriate images. It is possible to discern in the Mahayana a half-turn towards Vedanta and Bhakti, but at the same time one must underline the most distinctive universality of its outlook.
The credit for translating and interpreting afresh two classical Buddhist texts of great significance also goes to the learned scholar. The first among these is Ratnakirti's Apohasiddhi a text of Buddhist logic. Although it was translated earlier by Dhirendra Sharma but it was redone with annotations by Professor Pande in 1972 with an emphasis on the amplification of the issues of debate formulated in the text from the point of view of Nyaya Philosophy. The other text translated in 1973 is Dharmakirti's Nyāyabindu. He found the otherwise sound translation of this work by Stcherbatsky as lopsided in the sense that the latter, following Dharmottara, had translated it in the light of Sautrantika philosophy. Professor Pande gives a new dimension to his translation by anchoring it to Vijñānavādi interpretation as well.
He had occasion to deliver seversal lectures on Jain Philosophy and Ethics. One of the series was R.K. Jaina Memorial Lectures on Jainism (Delhi University, 1977). The lectures were titled 'Jaina Ethical Tradition and its Relevance" and "The Jaina Conception of Knowledge and its Relevance to Scientific Thought. Another was a three-lecture series delivered in the L.D. Institute of Indology, Ahmedabed, which was published by the Institute under the title Śramana Tradition: Its History and Contribution to Indian Culture. He propounded that Śramanism constitutes a system of universal, rational and ethical religion which is wholly non-sectarian, as applicable and relevant today as it was 2500 years ago. In his view Śramanic atheism is not a form of irreligion. It faces the evil and suffering of life squarely and attributes it to ones failings rather than to the mysterious designs of an unknown being. It underlines the inexorableness of the moral law. No prayers and worship are of any use against the abiding force of Karman. It emphasises self-reliance in the quest of salvation. In the series of six lectures delivered in 1984 under the joint auspices of the Prakrit Bharati Sansthan and Jaina Studies Centre of the University of Rajasthan, published by the Sansthan in the form of a book entitled "Jaina Political Thought he observed, 'By Jaiua political thought I mean political thought