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JAINA STUDIES : JAPAN, EUROPE, INDIAI
Kendall W. Folkert
What follows is intended to be an Introduoction to the current status of Jaina studies in several countries outside of the North American continent Since none of the contributors could be present at the 1975 Meet. Ing of the American Academy of Religion, it has had to be pot together on the basis of communications through the mails, over a relatively brlof period of time. The isolation of the contributors from one another has meant that each has examined the problem from hia own viewpoint. Thereforo, this report does not have a completely uniform charactor; nor can it pretond to be exhaustive. It should be regarded as a prelude to a more complete account of the present atate of Jaina studies, the production of which must remain a desideratum.
Yet the information that it does present may make it possible for scholara and students on this continent to seek advice and resources from specific scholars and institutions outside of North America. Given the conditions under which American students of the Jainas muat work, access to ald and Information-and, more important, koowledge of where auch ald and information might be obtained—can save many hours of frustrating work. Beyond this, it may lead to closer international cooperation in an arca of study whose academio population has always been amall, and where such cooperation perforce becomeg cagential to genuino progro88,
I. Japan To begin with the Japanese is at once curious and appropriato. Thla Is so because, of all the information-gaps that exist in the various fields of the Study of Religion, perbape pone 18 80 wide as that betwoon European-American scholars and their Japanese counterparts. The efforts of the latter over the years have been immense, and yet they often remain unknown on this continent,
This is no less the case in Jalna studio8. Individual Japanese, Indian and European-American scholars are often in communication with each other; but acholars outside Japan rarely see the overall pattern of Japanose work on the Jaina tradition. Profes&or Hajime Nakamura, who has him
1 Incorporating material and information furnished by :
Hajimo Nakamura (Tho Eastorn Institute, Tokyo) Ludwig Alsdorf (Professor Emeritus, Universität Hamburg) Nagin J. Shah (Director, L. D. Institute of Indology, Ahmedabad)
